


Palisades!

by Cruithne01



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Depression, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Probably will not change after I read trials of Apollo, Slow Burn, Swearing, Written before I read trials of Apollo, hopeful fic, mental illness will be talked about but its not the focus of the fic, nico has depression, self harm mention, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7096960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cruithne01/pseuds/Cruithne01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Palisades (n): a fence fixed deep in the ground, forming an enclosure or strong defence.</p><p>Starting as Nico walks into the infirmary for his three days. What has he signed up for?</p><p>~I have not read Trials of Apollo so this may not be canon compliant~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I can tell you, the telling gets old

Nico was already getting sick of the smell of disinfectant, and he had been there for all of twenty seconds. The room was lined with beds, mostly already filled with wounded demigods and the quiet sounds of pain echoed though air like the steady ticking of a clock.

He was already regretting his decision. Sure, he had promised Solace to stay for three days – to keep him happy. Hospitals made him on edge, as a rule. With the constant supervision, lousy meals and the promise of continous probing and prodding, what was there to like?

Solace led the way down the centre aisle toward the other side of the building where three doors lined the walls, broken up by shelves of medical equipment. Nico tried to keep his eyes on the floor, ignoring the fact that he would have to spend the next three days, with no escape other than sleep, with all these people.

Solace held the door open and beckoned Nico inside. He hesitated.

“What’s in there?”

“Just a check-up room, don’t panic,” Solace consoled, waving his hand impatiently. Nico stared at him for a moment before walking inside.

He took in the room quickly; it was mainly bare, with a single raised bed to the side and medical cabinets to the wall. Solace walked in after him and pulled a stethoscope from a hook to let it hang around his neck, along with a white coat that was just a little too big for him.

Nico raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Solace said.

“Nothing,” Nico mumbled, trying to keep down a smile. He sometimes thought it strange how Camp Half-Blood would use children for adult jobs. Looking at him with his bright hair, lithe athletic frame and Doctor’s clothes, he was the spitting image of Apollo.

“Alright,” Solace said, taking a clipboard from the wall and starting to write. “We’re just going to start with a basic physical, and determine if anything needs to be done there. Sit on the table and take off your shirt.”

Nico blinked. “What?”

“We’re performing a physical-”

“Yes, I heard. Why do I have to take my clothes off?”

“Because,” Solace said, “We’ve got to take measurements and stuff.”

“Is it absolutely necessary?”

“Yes. We’ve got to see if your size is a problem. We keep records of all the demigods at Camp, and we need to be able to monitor if something goes wrong after a fight.”

Nico avoided Solace’s gaze as he went over and sat on the bed. His gaze flickered to Solace, who quickly looked back to his clipboard, writing something down. Nico kept in a sigh; he was really going to have to do this. Solace was a doctor… Sort of. There was nothing to worry about. At least that was what he told himself.

Nico pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the bed with his jacket. Instinctively, he hunched over, his arms pinned to his sides. Solace was probably painstakingly aware of how uncomfortable he was.

He cast a glance down at his pale body. True, after coming back from Tartarus and his ordeal in the giant jar, he had been drastically underweight. He thought he had at least filled out a little, considering he had been eating more as of late, but he wasn’t sure how much. He could still see his ribs poking through his sallow skin and blue veins snaking around like rivers.

Nico dared to look up at Solace. The blonde-haired boy was unashamedly staring at him. He coughed, then looked down at his clipboard.

“So,” Solace said, “Just a couple of questions before we get the actual physical started. When was the last time you ate?”

Nico looked at the ground, trying his best to remember. His appetite had been better as of late, but it was often that the details of his eating habits were forgotten.

“I think it was the night of the bonfire. So…”

“A day and a half ago,” Solace said, writing down the numbers. He looked like he was doing his best to keep a grimace down. He succeeds about just as well as the time Percy said he was going to quit watching Finding Nemo on repeat.

“Any noticeable changes in your diet or appetite recently?”

“I have been eating more I guess.”

“You’ve been eating more but the last time you ate was a day and a half ago?” Solace raised his eyebrows.

“It’s not exactly the most important thing on my mind, Solace,” Nico snapped, giving him a thick glare.

“Alright, alright,” Solace said, holding his hands up, “Calm down Death Boy.”

“I told you not to call me that,” Nico mumbled to the ground.

Solace ignored him and moved on. Nico didn’t know how long Solace had been a doctor for. He knew that Solace was only a little older than him, but he was already a councillor with a cabin of at least fifteen. At the age of fifteen, taking on so much responsibility, it must have been a lot of pressure, especially when your father wasn’t exactly known to be the epitome of mature. Solace reminded him a lot of Piper – both embraced their parents’ gifts and tried to show the world how much better they could make them; tried to outdo the Gods.

“Have you engaged in any unprotected sexual activity in the past month?”

Nico almost started choking. “What?” he said. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Solace would ask this. Sex was something that didn’t even cross onto Nico’s radar. For one, it wasn’t exactly legal for him to participate in it and for another he’d been too busy on the field trip from hell for the past few months.

“Have you had sex without protection?” Solace repeated.

“I’m not even fifteen.”

“Hey, it’s just routine,” Solace said. They fell silent for a moment. “Well?”

“No,” Nico conceded, “I haven’t.”

He hated himself for the blush rising to his cheeks. Just because Solace was asking about it didn’t mean he had to get embarrassed about it. He wasn’t embarrassed about it. There was nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Do you drink?”

“Do the waters of the Phlegethon count?” Nico said dryly.

Solace blinked, silence hanging between them.

“Very funny,” Solace said, moving back into action, “But no.” Nico looked at the ground.

“Smoke?”

“No.”

“Last time you exercised?”

“I couldn’t tell you unless you count the death-defying missions I take part in on a regular basis.”

“Of course,” Solace said, “Last question, when was the last time you engaged in any of the shadowy death stuff?”

“Is that the technical term?”

“I’m a doctor; technical terms are all I use.”

“The day of the battle. Wouldn’t want to risk you getting mad.”

Solace shot him a gleaming smile before setting down his clipboard. It reminded Nico of an imp. Not the same kind of imp as Bryce Lawrence. No, this imp was the kind from fairy-tales that led the princess to safety and her true love with the promise of terrible jokes along the way. Nico hated imps.

“Right,” said Solace, “We’ll do a quick check of your vitals and then we’ll get started.”

Nico couldn’t believe it was taking them this long too even get into the actual physical. He was painfully aware of the way Solace’s gaze lingered over him as he gathered his stethoscope, the blood pressure machine and a thermometer. He felt as exposed as an ant under a magnifying glass, Solace’s thick gaze like the sun.

His temperature was too low along with his blood pressure. His heart rate was strangely erratic – Nico guessed that was probably because of his anxiety. He almost considered telling Solace that but he didn’t want any more reasons for his doctor to keep him in the infirmary for three days, if not longer.

“Alright,” Solace said, “Physical evaluation. I need you take your jeans off as well please.”

Nico would have had some sort of snappy come back but yet another sliver of fear pierced his heart. It was bad enough that Solace could already see how small and scrawny he was from his chest, but he didn’t want Solace seeing his legs.

“I-”

“It’s so we can accurately check your weight. Nico, we need the records. Now that we know that you’re staying, records of your health are vital to make sure you’re safe.”

Nico breathed in deeply. He stood and lowered his jeans, kicking them away from him. He looked down, avoiding Solace’s gaze as it raked over his body, searching for any abnormality. To say he was uncomfortable was an understatement.

“Nico?”

“Hm?”

“You probably saw this coming and I hate to ask it, but where did the scars come from?”

Nico glanced down at his left thigh where numerous white scars littered his skin. The oldest – probably two years old. The freshest was three weeks with a tinge of pink.

“I-” Nico took a breath. “I did them. To myself.”

Solace nodded and wrote something on his clipboard. “When was the last time you self-harmed?”

“Sometime during the voyage,” Nico said.

“Why?”

Nico shrugged. He hated this. He hated the way Solace looked at him now – like something to be pitied, something to examine and fix. Every inch of him was being recorded on that damn clipboard like he was some kind of science experiment gone wrong.

There was silence as Solace continued to write. “Moving on,” he said, tossing a smile Nico’s way. He was trying to make things more comfortable, Nico knew, but he still flinched when Solace’s hand landed on his back to guide him to the wall, where a scale sat.

“S-sorry,” Nico said instinctively. It wasn’t Solace’s fault that he hated being touched.

“It’s no problem,” Solace said, releasing his hand, “We’re just going to weigh you is all.”

Nico had to stop himself from bolting. He knew it wouldn’t be good.

“Eighty-eight pounds (39kg),” Solace announced, reading from the scale and yet again scribbling on his clipboard.

Nico could feel Solace’s displeasure growing by the second. Not that Nico cared.

“Alright,” Solace said, “You can put your jeans back on.”

Nico was all too eager to do that.

Solace pulled out a measuring tape from his coat pocket.

Nico already knew his height – he barely reached five foot two(158cm). He didn’t really think that was a problem. Solace measured around his chest, the length of his arms, his waist – the list went on. Camp Half-Blood would know every little detail about Nico’s body.

They continued with an eye test, co-ordination and a collection of Nico’s blood. Solace let Nico get dressed in some hospital clothes – thank god it wasn’t a hospital gown but rather what looked like an all-grey loose surgeon’s outfit. It felt like an age until Solace put his fucking clipboard down on the desk.

“Well,” said Solace, “I think we need to have a talk.” He leant against the cupboard to the side, his shoulders hunched.

Nico was sitting back on the bed, glaring at the floor. How dare Solace take this high and mighty position and decide to lecture him. Solace had no right to decide he was responsible for him.

“Nico,” Solace said, “Look at me.”

When Nico refused Solace continued with a sigh. “I’m not going to sugar coat this. You know you haven’t been taking care of your body. You obviously have some issues you need to work through-”

“It’s called depression, Solace.”

Nico had never said it out loud before. True, he hadn’t been to enough doctors to get any sort of ‘official’ diagnosis. But it wasn’t like he needed a doctor to tell him anyway - what else could it be? With all the god damned problems he’d faced in his life, there was bound to be repercussions. However, he didn’t feel like the death and despair in his life could get all the credit – at least some of it just had to be him.

He could wake up some mornings and just the thought of Bianca was a weight heavy enough to send him back to bed. Other mornings he wouldn’t wake up because he hadn’t even gone to sleep for fear of the monsters lurking in his dreams. Every night, the voices of Tartarus would whisper in his ear, telling him of all his downfalls like they were his own personal burn book.

He hated when people compared it to a ‘raincloud over your head’. It wasn’t that simple. Calling it a raincloud made it sound like it was just the occasional pitter-patter of worries and sadness that could be dealt with if he just put up an umbrella. In reality, it was as complex as a hurricane, ripping the umbrella from his hands and taking him with it, away into a maelstrom of painful memories and regrets. Sometimes, he got to see the eye of the storm and everything would be lifted for a moment of calm, but it was never for long.

“…Yes. I guess,” said Solace, “It makes sense considering all you’ve been through.”

 _I’ve been through literal hell_ , Nico thought. He didn’t tell Will that.

“I’m going to have to tell Chiron. It’s not going to change anything drastically – we’re just going to keep checking up on you, okay?”

Nico didn’t bother responding. Solace sighed. “Well that’s the examination done. I’ll get Kayla to show you where you’ll be staying.”

~


	2. Oh how I meant no harm

Kayla was a bright bubbly girl who insisted on laughing whenever Nico didn’t bother to speak. He wasn’t rude enough to say anything about it, which meant she just continued laughing. Which just annoyed him even more. It was an endless cycle.

She led him to a bunk at the end of the hall, beside a desk covered in papers that looked like they had been lying there for too long. It was next to the examinations rooms. Here would be where he would spend the next three days. Kayla made sure he was ‘resting’ safely on his bed – that is he was sitting against the headboard, already bored out of his mind.

“Well,” said Kayla, “Lunch is in two hours. I suspect Will will bring it to you. Any excuse to spend more time with his little Death boy.”

Nico just gave her a sour look. 

“Okay, okay,” she said, holding her hands up in defence, “I can tell you’re not one for conversation… Or people. I’ll leave you be.”

The girl walked off, her ponytail swinging from side to side. _Great_ , Nico thought, _another person who hates me_.

He looked around the infirmary, taking it all in. There were around twenty beds in the room, with a window that went all the way around the ceiling, about a foot down from the roof but only a foot high. Curtains hung wispily around the place and fell down between the beds, flowing into the room like they were lazily reaching for the doctors strolling around. The front doors led out onto a deck that Nico knew wound around the building – a place where patients could go to rest outside without leaving the safety of the infirmary. Of the twenty beds, only about half were filled, and thankfully none of the other patients were near Nico.

He sighed and laid down and stared up at the wooden ceiling. None of the other children of Apollo seemed particularly concerned with his health and so he was left to his own devices. He thought about trying to sleep to pass the time – he hadn’t exactly made any attempts to do so last night. But no, the idea of sleeping in front of all these people just put him on edge. He glanced at the clock against the wall – only an hour until lunch.

There wasn’t anything wrong with him. He was fine. There was nothing that Will Solace could do here that he couldn’t do for him outside. Still, Nico had made a promise – he didn’t want to compromise that. Besides, he didn’t want to make the boy angry. Solace was one of the few people looking out for him, after all.

He didn’t understand why the boy was so… interested in him. Didn’t he see Nico for what he was? Creepy, disgusting and horrible? Solace had seen Nico at his worst – when he had inadvertently killed Octavian by consensus. How could Solace treat him this way when Nico had killed someone? He didn’t deserve it.

He rolled onto his side, turning to face the desk. He was uncomfortable and confused, like there was a blanket tucked tightly over him, strangulating his every move and stopping him from seeing any answers for the situation.

It didn’t help that what he had just done was finally sinking in. He had just told Percy Jackson…

He’d just told him he was gay.

After keeping it hidden for so long, like a family secret he never wanted to pass down, he had just up and told him. And then proceeded to say ‘you’re not my type.’.

 _Holy shit_.

He looked at Percy Jackson and his heart no longer stopped in his chest and he was no longer lost for words. He just saw him for who he was – a dorky seventeen-year-old who had somehow become the child of the Prophecy and survived.

Or did he?

Everywhere he looked in his life, he saw traces of Percy. Everywhere, there were the fingerprints of the Son of the Sea God, like he had committed a crime he had never owned up to.

It was strange, not loving Percy anymore. He had never anticipated the absence he felt in his chest. His thoughts didn’t instinctively fall back to him anymore when there was nothing else to do.

From the time he was eleven and Percy had stood on that snowy peak, facing a monster for him, a stranger, Nico had placed his undying faith in him. This is what heroes were made of.

Or course, he hadn’t known what that meant until he was twelve and he couldn’t bring himself to betray the boy who had killed his sister.

The hate had bubbled in him like a kettle that had boiled too long, whistling with a rage that didn’t know what to do with itself.

Then, he had looked at Percy and saw a guy who loved so hard he would die for a little boy he just met. But not a little girl.

The sting had worn off eventually. He could never forgive Percy. But he also could never stop believing in him, either. The world had automatically made Percy a hero, but Nico had made him his own. Nico would be lying to himself if he said he still wouldn’t follow Percy Jackson to the ends of the earth. He had shaped Nico from the day he had become a half-blood and he barely even knew it.

“Nico?”

Nico jerked away from the desk, looking up at the voice that had broken him out of his reverie.

Solace. Of course.

The curly-haired blonde was grinning down at him, holding a tray of what Nico could only presume was lunch. Nico groaned, throwing a forearm over his head. He was groggy from lying still for so long and not having enough sleep.

“Come on sunshine it’s lunchtime.”

“That was the most terrible rhyme I have ever heard,” Nico mumbled.

“Poetry is not one of the gifts I received from my father,” Solace replied simply. He looked at Nico expectantly. He sighed, sitting up so he was leaning against the headboard as Solace went to sit on the desk chair. Nico rubbed at his eyes. Something hard was placed into his lap.

Lunch.

“So,” said Solace, pulling a muesli bar out of his pocket, “Eat up.”

Nico stared at the food before him. A ham sandwich and a glass of juice was resting on the tray. He cast a glance at Solace, who had unwrapped his muesli bar and ate expectantly. He wasn’t sure how Solace was able to _eat_ expectantly but that was what he was doing, with his eyebrows raised and somehow exaggerated munching.

He had to swallow down the bubble of anger that had been growing in him since he had stepped foot in the infirmary. It frustrated him to no end that Solace thought that he could keep him here and tell him what to do. Still, Nico didn’t want to get mad at the boy. He may have disliked Solace’s meddling but he seemed so intent on helping him.

Solace continued to stare at him, chewing methodically on the muesli bar, his eyebrows raised and his arms crossed. Nico stared back. Just because Solace wanted to help didn’t mean Nico had to do what he said. Painful seconds ticked by as Nico held his gaze.

“I’m not hungry,” Nico said. He swallowed, ignoring the empty feeling in his stomach.

“Oh?” Solace asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s been a day and a half since you last ate.”

“I have a slow metabolism. I’m still digesting,” Nico said.

“Nico, you realise I’m a doctor right.”

“Not a trained one.”

“True. But you don’t have to be a doctor to know people need to eat every four hours.”

“But you do have to be me to know when I actually need to eat. Which is not now. Because I’m not hungry.”

They stared at each other in a stubborn standoff.

“Why are you doing all this?” Nico demanded. It had been pressing him ever since Solace had said ‘You owe me at least three days of rest in the infirmary’. Nico didn’t need any help. He didn’t deserve it, especially from someone like Will Solace – someone so light and full of joy and couldn’t have possibly committed any serious wrong in the world, unlike Nico whose powers revolved around _death_. How much more wrong could you get?

“Because,” said Solace, “You looked like you needed help.”

“I don’t need it. I was doing perfectly fine on my own-”

“You were fading into nothingness Nico!” Solace stood up. “You’re barely eating; you’ve got those scars. You keep putting yourself in harm’s way, pushing yourself to the brink. I don’t want to keep seeing that happen. Unlike what you think, some people care for you and your wellbeing. People like me. I care. Lots of people do. I just want you to see that.”

Nico looked down at the blanket, avoiding Solace’s gaze, avoiding looking at the tray of food. He was still angry, but now there was that little voice in the back of his head whispering. _You’ve messed everything up again. Just like you did with everyone else_.

He could feel Solace staring at him, waiting for a response. Well, he wasn’t going to get one.

Solace sighed. “I can’t make you eat because that isn’t how this works. You’re in charge, Nico. If it gets fatal, I have to intervene but in the meantime it’s up to you.” Solace got up and left, walking away to other patients.

Nico blinked and stared at his food. That wasn’t how he had expected it to go. He had expected Solace to threaten more days in the infirmary, or force feed him… or something. Not just leave him with a choice. It didn’t feel like Solace was guilting him either – Nico didn’t feel like he had to please him. It was just his choice. Was he going to avoid eating because of all the things his head was telling him, or was he going to eat because he needed to?

His stomach growled. Nico downed the juice.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just so everyone knows I'll be updating Sundays AEST. Yeah so I've never really written a series before that has gone anywhere- aside from a Skulduggery Pleasant one that just sort of fell apart. I guess I'm writing this because I didn't really like the way other 'three-days-in-the-infirmary' fics turned out so this is just what I thought it would be like. I hope you guys liked it and thanks for reading!


	3. I can wait

By dinner, the bread had gone stale and the ham had begun to smell. Nico had been able to ignore it by counting various objects in the infirmary – beds, patients, workers, tiles – you name it Nico had counted it. He needed something to do. Nico wasn’t exactly good at finding hobbies – for most of his life he had been obsessed with MythoMagic and then he had been flung about on quests by his father, his friends, the camp. There hadn’t been a lot of time to just watch tv or read a book. Not that he was that great at reading – his dyslexia was pretty intense. He was bored. His thoughts drifted.

Nico was used to spending time in his own head – it was something he did on the regular after his ordeal in Tartarus. Every day it was easier and easier to just shut everything out and think about… nothing. If he did think, it wasn’t exactly positive thoughts. Thoughts about Tartarus, the jar, Bianca – all the pain he had endured and all the pain he had caused.

Of course, their fight from earlier had been pressing at his mind. Every time he thought he had moved his thoughts onwards, it worked his way into his focus so that it was all he could think about, like the annoying buzzing of a fly.

He’d really messed things up, hadn’t he? He still firmly believed that he didn’t need to be here with Will Solace’s damn help. But, he had hurt the boy. He understood if Solace didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. He’d gone out of his way to help him and Nico had just pushed him away, like he always did.

“Nico?”

Nico cursed himself for jerking away again. Solace must think he was some sort of freak.

“Hm?”

“It’s dinner time,” Solace said, sitting back in the desk chair with a new tray in his hand. Apparently salad was on the menu.

“Wonderful,” Nico muttered, sitting up.

Solace cast a glance to the discarded tray on the desk before handing Nico his bowl of salad.

It seemed to stare at him like the blank face of a clock, the second hand ticking by expectantly.

He did need to eat.

Avoiding Solace’s gaze, Nico tentatively poked at the salad before scooping up a piece of lettuce and hurriedly stuffed it in his mouth.

He was just about to become uncomfortable with the way that Solace was staring at him when the boy started talking. About everything.

“So, since you’ve been in here for a while now I thought I’d give you an update on everything…”

And it was so easy for him, to talk, about anything and everything. About Camp, Percy and Annabeth, how things were settling after the war, his mom and his siblings, his cabin – Everything just came pouring out while Nico ate. He learnt that Solace had younger siblings back home in California - a set of twins, a boy and a girl, Avery and Ava. They were barely seven years old but somehow they understood that he needed to be away most of the time – a lot better than his mom did, anyways.

The Camp was settling down again – routine was back to normal with capture the flag every night and the archery lessons he taught running again. Chiron was worried about a lot of the kids and how they were coping but Solace was helping set up a seniors counselling program. The idea was that the senior leaders would go through a training course so they could help out some of the younger kids.

“Percy was so excited,” Will said, “God that guy loves helping people.”

Nico stared at his food. _Yeah_ , he thought, _He does_.

“But,” Will said, “I told him in the nicest way possible that he was in no fit condition to be counselling kids when he was the one who went through Tartarus. It took some time convincing him, but he’s going to take a break from everything for a while.”

 _At least he’s looking after himself_ , Nico thought. He realised with a jolt that the salad was all gone.

“Thanks, Solace,” He mumbled. Solace smiled softly and stood up.

“No problem,” said Solace, “Call me Will though already. It’s been a few days.”

Nico nodded gently and looked up at him. He took his bowl from him and carried off the other tray. “See you around Death Boy,” Solace – no, Will said. Nico just sighed.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I couldn't find a way to work this little bit into any other chapter and since it's short I'd update now cos it felt a bit unfair uploading a chapter that's barely 700 words long. I should probs say props to jazzhandslazuli, my editor who gives me half of my ideas. Thanks bro.


	4. Oh admiration in falling asleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico has a nightmare.

Over the next couple of hours, Nico had nothing to do except just lie on his bed again, counting the specks of dust on the wall. It was doing his head in how mind numbingly boring the place was. By the time it was curfew and everyone else was falling asleep, he wasn’t even tired.

Go figure.

He was at least glad that it was finally dark – the infirmary staff seemed intent on keeping the place lit up 24 hours a day. Now all he needed was some privacy. It already took him a while to fall asleep anyways, he didn’t need to have to worry about everyone looking at him. The clock ticked. The skeleton staff did their rounds once, twice.

Eventually, he fell into the grips of sleep.

He was in the jar. It was just an empty room, but Nico knew from the way the gloom stuck to the walls and the air as thin as paper that it couldn’t be anything else. He just sat there, letting the darkness wash over his small, insignificant body. He had accepted it by now - It was all too familiar. Shadows curled around him like they were greeting an old friend.

The floor opening up beneath him wasn’t familiar, but he knew where he was going. There was only one place he could be going.

Tartarus.

He initially panicked and scrabbled at the air as if a handhold would magically appear but he had no hope. He was gone.

He landed on the damp, squishy earth with a thump and a groan.

Wait.

Damp.

Squishy.

There was only one place in Tartarus like that.

Nico sprang to his feet and reach for his sword. It wasn’t there.

“Nico…” Came an eerie voice, “Welcome back.”

He could hear the blood roaring in his ears and his breath as loud as a single car on a highway – long and distinctive in its isolated existence. The air hung still, cold – the mist before him like an impenetrable curtain.

“Nico,” said the voice again, “Did you come back for more? How did you know that the last time you were here I wasn’t quite done? How could I _ever_ be done with you, my sweet prince.”

“l-leave me alone,” Nico started. His breath billowed out in a cloud.

“Never in a thousand lifetimes.”

And then there was a pain in his side like he’d been stabbed and his skin was crawling like it was trying to rip itself from his body and he couldn’t breathe. He cried out and fell to his knees; his head felt like it was going to implode.

“Please,” he whispered hoarsely, “Let me go.”

“Why would I want to do that? You’ve caused so much pain and it runs through your veins. You’ve made me the happiest I’ve been in an age.”

Nico just screamed.

Hands were on him, pushing him down and he couldn’t see anything but the hair in his eyes couldn’t feel anything but the pain washing over him couldn’t hear-

“Nico! Nico. Come on buddy, it’s me.”

There were arms still pushing him down and he pushed them away, desperate to escape.

“Nico. Nico, open your eyes. It’s okay.”

Nico knew that voice. The hands on his shoulders didn’t feel like the claws of Akhlys.

He opened his eyes.

Will Solace looked at him, concern tinging his crystal blue eyes.

“You with me?” he asked softly.

Nico didn’t know. His hands gripped Will’s shoulders like a vice and he was shaking and he couldn’t control his breathing and –

“It’s okay,” said Will, “It’s okay. Just breathe. What’s your name?”

“Nic- Nico di Angelo.”

“How old are you?”

“Almost fifteen.”

“Where are you?”

Nico cast a glance around the dim room. The shadows didn’t flow like he expected them to. He was in the infirmary.

“Camp Half-Blood.”

“You’re safe.”

“…Safe. I’m safe.”

“Right you are.”

Nico continued to stare at him wide-eyed, not quite believing what Will was saying. His breath still shuddered in his chest, his body still shaking like it was anticipating a car crash.

“I’m going to hug you now, if that’s okay?”

Nico barely moved his head before he was pulled into Will’s arms. He didn’t shy or push away. He didn’t flinch. He was just trying to get his breathing under control and trying to get the images of Tartarus out of his head. Tears rimmed his eyes and he clung onto the older boy tightly.

“Shh,” Will said, stroking a circle on his back, “It’s okay Nico. You’re safe.”

Nico just buried his face in Will’s neck.

~

He woke early the next morning – he was never one for sleeping in. He rubbed his groggy eyes and brushed his hair out of his face. He sat up on his elbows so he could look around.

In the chair beside the bed sat Will Solace, his head tilted and his mouth open as he made soft sleeping noises. His hair caught the morning light and seemed to send it curling around his face, like some sort of a halo. Nico suppressed a smile.

“He’s been there all night, you know.”

It was Kayla.

“After you… woke up. He stayed with you,” Kayla said. “I hope you thank him for it.”

Nico opened his mouth to protest – something about how Solace hadn’t needed to stay with him; he didn’t have to look out for him. But he stopped himself and Kayla walked off.

Nico wanted to hate it. He wanted to hate how Will had held him, like a pathetic child. Hell, he wanted to hate how Reyna had hugged him, and Jason. He hated how he needed their help. But he had never felt so protected, so safe, than he had while Will was hugging him – tight like he wouldn’t let go as long Nico needed it.

He looked back at Will’s sleeping form. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I read Mark of Athena, I kind of assumed that the jar was as big as one of the giants? The other night I was scrolling through some fanart and it had a picture of Nico in the jar and he was all like curled up. It never occurred to me that it would only be just big enough for Nico (And yeah looking back there is a line saying that its only about the size of Percy (actually my amazing friend Liam told me about it) but anyways I don't think I can change that perception in my head so I'm still going to be thinking of the jar as massive.  
> So yeah updates are back to just Sundays AEST cos none of the other chapters are as short as the past two. Thanks everyone for the kudos and comments! It's been really encouraging. And also shout out to jazzhandslazuli for proof-reading everything.


	5. Thinking outrageously I write in cursive

Nico had briefly fallen back asleep again and when he woke, Will was gone. He almost missed him. Almost.

He felt like shit. There was no other way to put it.

He wasn’t plagued by nightmares every night, but they were a frequent occurrence he would prefer to do without. They caught him when he least expected, raking his mind into dark depths he never wanted to go.

He just felt so… heavy. It probably sounded terribly cliché to anyone who heard it, but the thoughts of Tartarus and Akhyls’s plagued words of ‘What more could I do?’ weighed him down like there was a stone lodged in his stomach.

It was heavy in a way that made him stay staring at the desk. It was heavy in the way that made him ignore when Kayla brought breakfast over. It was heavy in the way that it made him not think but think everything at the same time so that he was caught in an abyss of wanting the world to stop so that he could just feel _heavy_.

He felt terrible about Will. He had been so weak and so vulnerable and he’d just let Will _hold him_ like that. He didn’t understand why the boy was doing so much for him. He simply didn’t deserve it. Will was a shining light of joy and here Nico was, a lonely kid who’d caused so much trouble and so much harm.

He was caught in one of his staring contests with the desk when something landed on his lap. He flinched and bit in a curse.

Of course, it was Will Solace.

“I got you something,” he said, “Considering you’re here all day, having meaningful conversations with the wall.”

Nico looked down to his lap. It was a Batman comic – one of the newer ones that gleamed with gloss and smelled of fresh ink. On the cover, Batman was flourishing his cloak in front of him while Superman stood to the side with a terrified look on his face. It was all well and good except for one major problem.

“Will, you do realise that I, like most demigods, am dyslexic?” Nico said, raising an eyebrow, “And that for me it’s worse than others?”

“That’s what I figured, with you being a child of the Big Three and all,” said Will, “But that’s why I picked a comic book. There’s not many words.”

“English is also my second language.”

“Yes, but it’s a comic book – there’s no dictionary worthy words in here. It’s simple.”

Nico blinked. “You also realise that I have never been to school? I’m not able to read well anyhows.”

 “…Yes,” said Will, not giving up, “But you can understand the story with the pictures.”

“Uhuh.”

Will hesitated. “I got you this as well,” he said. He held out a book and set of pencils. “It’s a sketch book,” he said as Nico flicked through the blank pages. “You don’t need to be able to read to draw pictures.”

Nico breathed a laugh. He had been into sketching a little when he was younger, but he hadn’t had much time to develop the skill. But, Will was like an eager puppy trying to please his owner. He couldn’t upset him.

“Thank you,” Nico said, giving Will a soft smile. Will beamed back.

“Alright,” he said, turning on his heel, “I’ll-”

“Will,” said Nico suddenly, “About last night-”

“Don’t mention it,” Will said, a look of empathy washing over his face. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Nico nodded. He could practically feel the waves of pity rolling off of Will’s body. Nico hated it.

“Well then,” said Will, “I’ll be off.”

“Don’t you ever have days off?”

“Not when my favourite patient’s in,” Will said. He gave Nico a wink before turning on his heel and practically skipping away.

The blush rose to Nico’s cheeks faster than Jason Grace could pass out.

~

At first, Nico blatantly ignored the comic book. He didn’t even want to try and decipher it when he could barely make out the ‘Batman’ on the front cover.

Instead, he watched Will work. It seemed like what he had said to Nico was true - that while he was in the infirmary he wouldn’t take a day off or stop work. He was constantly buzzing around, checking charts on the ends of beds, re-bandaging wounds and helping deliver food when it was lunch time. He seemed able to talk to patients with ease, giving them the same charming smiles and laughs he gave Nico.

Nico pushed down the tinges of jealousy pushing behind his eyes. Why should he be jealous? It was just Will’s bedside manner – why did Nico think that Will only treated him that way? Still, he found himself staring at the doctor all too much throughout the day. His hands captured Nico’s attention the most – the way they were so nimble, deft and gentle with the way they carried out even menial tasks like writing. He found himself wanting to look at them closer and –

No.

Nico broke his stare away from Will Solace. He should stop thinking about him. He was only jealous because he was everything Nico wasn’t. He should stop.

He supposed he could Iris-call Hazel. She should be back with the Legion by now in New Rome, and he should check up on her.

Making sure no one would miss him, Nico snuck towards the bathroom, sneaking a drachma on his way. He shut the door softly, doing a quick double check that no one was watching and then turned towards the counter. He turned on the faucet and grabbed the plug, positioning it so that the water flared into the air. The spray produced wasn’t exactly television-sized but it would have to do.

Nico said the magic words and tossed the drachma into the water. The surface shimmered for a moment and Hazel’s face appeared. Her head shook in shock. She was standing in her room in the barracks with the other members of the cohort milling in the background.

“Nico?” Her face slackened. “Oh, you’re iris-messaging me.”

Nico gave her a warm smile. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Oh,” he said, “Nothing really. I just wanted to check on you-”

Hazel’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, where are you? And what clothes are you wearing?”

“I’m in the infirmary-”

“What!?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “It’s nothing to worry about, just something Will wanted me to do,” Nico reassured.

“Who’s Will?” she asked, looking suspicious.

Nico blinked. “Oh, right,” he said, “You haven’t met him. He’s the head healer here at Camp Half-Blood. Child of Apollo. He was worried about me after all that shadow-travelling, so he thought I should take a couple of days to… recuperate.”

“Does he have good reason to?”

“No,” said Nico. He hesitated. “… Maybe. I haven’t fully regained my strength.”

Hazel smiled. “I like this Will.”

“I don’t. He’s an annoying, meddling stuck-up who insists on smiling _all of the time_. I don’t know how he does it. He must have metal rods in his cheeks so that he never frowns,” said Nico. Hazel laughed. Nico loved her laugh, it was so rich and full and genuine, like everything was good news. He smiled back at her.

“They probably have something like that, you know,” said Hazel, “To keep people smiling forever. You should ask him, him being a doctor and all.”

“Yeah,” said Nico, “Maybe I should.”

He was so relived to be back talking to Hazel. He didn’t like being at Camp Half-Blood without her. They’d been apart throughout the quest and now he was facing weeks without seeing his sister. It sucked. She gave him a kind of happiness he hadn’t felt since Bianca had died, but that by any means did not mean that she was a substitute or a replacement. He loved her for her.

He didn’t really go into much detail as to why he was here. He hadn’t even really told Will how he felt after all the shadow-travelling. Truth be told, he still felt unconscionably weak, but not in the way he was expecting. He’d expected, from what he had experienced on the quest, that he’d be left bed-ridden for days with the strength of a mouse, but now he just felt… dull. Empty. It wasn’t like his powers had disappeared, but when he reached out to them, it was harder to draw them in and it left him feeling drained, rather than a constant ache that told him he needed to rest. He felt like a three and he needed to be at least a five if he wanted to keep using his powers.

He and Hazel talked some more, just about what their plans for the rest of the summer were. They avoided the subject of Leo – they both knew that it would do no good for either of them to dwell on the dead. But Nico couldn’t shake the odd feeling he had felt when Leo had died.

Frank showed up, said a few words, but by then Nico had been in the bathroom for half an hour and someone was bound to notice.

After Hazel hung up, Nico was left to his own devices again. He couldn’t face the comic book yet and the sketch book – well, he wouldn’t know what to draw. Before Nico knew it, he was back in his own head on his bed.

That was when one of the other patients, a girl a few beds away, started having a seizure. Her limbs were jerking about and her face was twitching uncontrollably. Before Nico could open his mouth to alert anyone, Will and another girl were rushing to the patient.

The girl helped Will turn the patient on her side gently, doing their best not to touch her more than they had to. Nico had no idea about what they could do – he thought you just had to let seizures pass.

Will, however, looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. He hurriedly pushed his sleeves up and hovered his hands over the girl’s shuddering body. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and began murmuring softly under his breath. Nico watched in amazement – a golden glow emanated from Will’s hands that spread down to the girl’s body like a wave of shining water. The longer it went on, the less the girl moved about, until she was resting peacefully, all movement gone from her body except for the calm movements of her chest.

The light disappeared suddenly and Will slumped forward, bending over his knees. The girl hurried over, reaching out to help him up but Will waved her off, rubbing his forehead. After a moment he tried to stand but he stumbled, a groan escaping his lips. Nico found himself getting out of bed to help but the girl was already there, putting Will’s arm around her to support him. Nico’s heart thumped in his chest. Was Will okay?

The girls half-carried, half-helped Will down the aisle to one of the examination rooms, right by Nico’s bed.

“Is he-” Nico started but before he knew it the door was closed with a slam!

Nico’s head was a flurry of curse words and anxiety. If Will’s powers were as exerting as Nico’s were, he needed to rest. He didn’t want Will hurting himself because of Nico – he wasn’t worth that.

He was left staring at the door Will and the girl had disappeared through. The girl eventually emerged, barely glancing at Nico before doing her rounds of the infirmary.

All of the anxiety, the hours of doing nothing and his ADHD were getting to him. He had to do something. He couldn’t bear to sit here with worries of Will whirling around his head like a tornado. He had to distract himself.

Nico glanced at the comic book on the desk beside him. He stared it down, as if daring it to try and do something shady like have copious amounts of words. Batman was staring back, as if saying ‘Fight me’.

 _I will_ , thought Nico.

He snatched up the comic book and opened it determinedly to the first page. He had to work out the dang title of this book – unfortunately he could barely make out how many words were in the title. Three? No, four. His problem was that the letters wouldn’t stop moving – they didn’t float off the page and fly away, they were just constantly switching around like fleas on caffeine.

The first word could have been Batman… Or Superman… Or neither.

It took him a couple of moments, but he worked it out. _Batman and Superman: Genesis_.

Genesis had been a fucking nightmare. Generally, Nico could figure out what standard words, like ‘said’ or ‘what’ were but if anything remotely unusual showed up, it was a difficult ordeal.

 _Alright. I’ve got the title. I can do this_ , he thought.

Nico turned the page. Another hurdle – all the speech was thick and bold and running into each other. He sighed. This was going to be a long afternoon.

~

It took him half an hour to get through the first four pages. There was a lot more text than Nico had thought there would be and no matter what Will had said, he could not figure out the story from just the pictures. That was bullshit.

“Why can’t you just freaking stay still,” Nico whispered to the page. He rubbed the bridge of his nose – a headache had been forming behind his eyes ever since Will had been dragged away. His skin was hot, uncomfortable and almost prickling where it touched the blankets. He cast a look to the door Will had been taken through. The girl had come back out a while ago, but as far as Nico knew, Will was still in there.

He turned his attention back to the comic book. How come he couldn’t read right? It was just some words on a damn page.

 _It’s simple_ , Will had said. Well, Nico couldn’t even do this. It felt like his head was in a constant whirlwind of letters and words and every time he thought he could make out even part of a word it was whisked back away into the maelstrom of vocabulary.

If he couldn’t even read how was he supposed to be of any use to anyone. He wanted to go to school eventually and if he showed up like this, barely able to read a sentence, he’d be labelled a freak for sure. He was fifteen for God’s sake – a five-year-old could read better than him. It was just another thing he failed at and another thing to people to judge him for – people like Will and Percy. Percy already was disturbed by his confession the other day. He was probably intent on staying away from him for now. And Nico didn’t even know how Will was; he’d over-exerted himself because of Nico and it was just another thing that Nico-

Nico took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He hated when he got like this – when one little problem snowballed into twenty thousand others and led to him getting overwhelmed and anxious. He pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes.

It was stupid – he was upset like a child over a damn _comic book_.

Nico tossed the book onto the desk.

“Fuck you,” he said under his breath and rolled over to face away from it.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also btw if you don't know the song that the title and chapter titles come from, it's 'The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!' by Sufjan Stevens. It's a chill song.  
> I'm a bit worried if I'm keeping with the continuity of the books because my memory isn't exactly the best. If i mess something up I'll try to fix it.  
> Once again, props to jazzhandslazuli.


	6. Oh I am fast in bed

It was after dinner before Nico saw Will again. The boy was striding about in his doctor’s coat with the same energy of the past couple of days as if nothing had happened.

Eventually, Will wandered over to him, plopping himself down into the chair beside the bed with a sigh. Looking at him, Nico knew that it wasn’t obvious he was worn out but it was all in the way his hair had lost its bounce; the way the light in his eyes had dimmed and the way he rubbed at his forehead.

“Hi,” said Nico after a moment.

“Hi,” Will cheerfully replied.

“You… alright?”

“Just peachy,” Will said. He looked at the comic on the desk. “How’s that going?”

Nico’s mood instantly went sour, his face falling into a frown. “It can go fuck itself.”

“Wow, okay then,” said Will, “Problems with reading it?”

“…Yeah,” said Nico.

“Well, let’s have a look,” Will said. He picked up the comic book and flicked to the first page. “See, I never had much trouble reading. I’d probably get a 1 on the dyslexia test. Problem is, it’s like my ADHD tried to compensate; sitting still is a nightmare. Doesn’t mean I don’t have any trouble reading – it’s just easier for me than other demigods. Probably like Apollo sensed I needed to know big medical words like osteoporosis.”

Nico nodded, having no idea what that was. He didn’t want to ask.

His dyslexia was a nightmare – with his brain automatically searching for an Italian word, a language he hadn’t even been taught to read properly, reading was literal hell. It sucked. His ADHD, however, was another story. As a kid he couldn’t sit still, people would complain he talked too quickly and staying focused in conversations was a nightmare. Lately, he figured, it was like his depression counteracted it all – he was more often than not just left sitting for hours, able to disappear into his own head. But, like Will’s dyslexia, it wasn’t like it didn’t affect him. If he stayed still for too long he got restless.

“Batman and Superman… Genesis,” Will said. Nico blinked. Will had trouble with damn ‘genesis’ too. Will began reading the comic book to him like a storybook, complete with sound effects and voices. Nico bit his lip, not daring to say anything as Will continued reading all the dialogue. It was like watching a five-year-old trying to tell you a story they made up, minus the extravagant hand gestures, as he had to hold the book. If Nico had to be completely honest, he had no idea what was going on – the speech didn’t exactly have the whole story. Nico figured they must have gotten through at least five pages when Will stopped suddenly.

“Wait a minute,” he said, blinking at the page, his eyebrows furrowed. “Comics have pictures… To help you understand…”

Will looked up at Nico.

“How long have you been sitting there, pretending I was doing you a great service?”

“Oh, for about two days now,” Nico retorted.

“Hey!”

“I’m kidding,” said Nico, “I think. It’s been about five minutes actually.”

“Wow, some help you are.”

“Hey!” protested Nico, “I just knew you’d figure it out eventually.”

“I’m glad we have such a great understanding of each other,” Will replied, sarcasm dripping from every word. “What do we do? You need to see the pictures _and_ hear the words.”

“We could just… give up on it?”

 “Nico di Angelo, are you suggesting that I give up?” Will sounded like Nico had just killed someone.

“Well, stranger things have occurred.”

“I’m going to ignore that and move on,” Will said, standing up. For one hopeful second, Nico thought he was going to walk away.

“There’s only one solution. Shove over.”

“What?” Nico spluttered. No way was he getting into bed with Solace.

“You can’t live life without reading this comic,” Will said.

“I’ve been doing alright so far,” he protested, “There’s no way you’re getting into bed with me.”

“But,” Will said, “It’s my favourite comic _ever_.” Nico looked up at Will. The older boy had his eyes wide, his hands clasped before him with the comic in between and his bottom lip sticking out.

_Was he serious?_

Nico glared back up at Will’s puppy-face. The light caught the blue of his eyes just the right way, like a glass refracting a beam – Nico could almost see the cartoon twinkle in his eyes. Nico squinted his eyes, trying to blur out Will so he could ignore the pleading look.

It was annoying.

It was useless.

It was… adorable.

“Fine,” Nico sighed, “But only for five minutes.”

“That’s all I need,” Will replied, winking. Nico hated the blush that rose to his cheeks.

Will sat down on the edge of the bed and Nico shuffled over, sitting as far as he could to the other side of the bunk. Even considering that he was so small, Will was much bigger and they ended up with only just enough room to fit. Nico was painfully aware of the prickling feeling in his arm where it pressed completely against Will. He avoided looking at Will and kept his hands clasped in his lap.

“This okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Nico mumbled, “Go on.”

Will shot him a grin and turned back to the book, clearing his throat. Nico looked down at the page to see the scene – an empty laboratory – laid out before him. And Will began to read.

It was hard to pay attention at first as all Nico was able to focus on was the way his arm pressed against the other boy, the way Will’s knee bent overlapped his legs and his feet tapped against him rhythmically. Nico didn’t even know why touching people made him so uncomfortable – he just didn’t like it. With Will, he was still uncomfortable but there was a whole other level on top of that. He found himself thinking about the string of muscles in the arm beside him and the way his clothes fell over his body and how Nico looked in comparison and –

“Nico?”

Nico jerked his head up.

“Hm?” he said, trying to hide his awkwardness.

“I can stop you know. I don’t mind-”

“No, no. It’s okay. Really. Go on,” Nico consoled.

“You sure?”

“Just get on with it Solace.”

That earned him a grin and soon they were back into the comic. It was roughly where Nico had gotten up to in his own attempts at reading. It was a story about how Batman was somehow involved in Superman coming to earth. It interested Nico a lot, but it was kind of hard to follow considering his limited knowledge of the two heroes. The one thing he did get though… Were they gay?

Nico blinked.

Gay superheroes.

There couldn’t be such a thing.

Nico squinted his eyes.

They were. They were gay superheroes. Gay superheroes who were gay for each other.

Nico decided to file that golden piece of information away for later and instead went back to focusing on Will’s voice. It was smooth and animated, making the ‘BAM!’s and ‘POW!’s just loud enough to have the desired effect but also quiet enough that it didn’t draw attention to them. Nico was thankful for the fact that there weren’t any other doctors in the room.

Before Nico realised the five minutes were up, his eyelids began to get drowsy and his concentration moved in and out of focus. Will’s voice was just so smooth. Nico could listen to it all day and –

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's late but it's here (hey its still Sunday its just night time).  
> I didn't rly like this chapter that much - my writing just feels a bit awkward.  
> Thanks for reading!


	7. I can tell you the day we were born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wake-ups, drawing, picnics.

Nico stirred, moving closer to whatever was so warm beside him and scrunched his fingers into its clothes. Will groaned and leaned into him.

Nico’s eyes shot open.

_Will._

_Will was in his bed._

_Asleep_.

Tooclosetoomuchtoosudden.

Nico recoiled instantly, forgetting that the bed was only small and fell extravagantly onto the floor. He ended up hitting his head on the bed beside his and his legs were tangled up on the bunk, almost leaving him suspended from it.

Will chose this moment to wake up, rubbing his eyes drowsily. He froze.

Nico stared at him.

Will stared back.

“I guess I was more tired than I thought,” Will said uneasily, trying to laugh it off. He took in Nico’s position, the look on his face, how wide his eyes were, and his face slackened.

“Nico, I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine,” Nico said quickly. He swallowed and then moved to get up, untangling his legs from the bed. He could feel the dark flush rising to his cheeks already.

“Go take a break and get some sleep in your own bed Solace,” he mumbled, not daring to meet Will’s eyes.

He could hear Will take a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “I better get back to work.”

Nico finally looked at Will as he strode away. Was that-

Will Solace’s face was bright red.

“Idiot,” Nico muttered.

~

Nico gathered up his bedsheets and set to work making the bed. As was often the case with this kind of operation, it was much more strenuous than he had originally thought and so he was left wrestling with the mattress in vain.

“Excuse me?”

Nico looked up.

A girl was standing there, her eyebrows raised and a smirk on her face. She had dark skin and even darker hair, pulled back into a thousand braids that spiked out like a flower behind her; in fact, there was a flower that poked into her hairband, purple and bright. Under her lab coat she wore a tank top with a purple plaid over-shirt synched loosely around her waist. Her wrist held enough rubber bracelets to weigh down a large elephant and her jeans were decked out in hundreds of tiny splashes of paint. It was certainly a very ‘un-healer’ look that contrasted with Will and Kayla’s business-casual outfits of t-shirts and jeans.

“Need any help there?” she asked.

“Um.” Was all Nico could manage. None of the other children of Apollo ever bothered to talk to him – not because they were rude, just because they had so much on their hands most of the time. Now this girl wanted to talk to him? Nico almost forgot how social interaction worked from her appearance alone.

The girl rolled her eyes and stepped forward, gently nudging him out of the way as she continued his work

“You tuck it in like this, otherwise it’s gonna come loose and tangle you up in the middle of the night,” she said, “Have you never made a bed before or something?”

Nico blinked.

“Um,” he said, “Yes?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” the girl grinned.

She stepped back and admired her work, which Nico admitted did look about a hundred times better than anything he could achieve. He reminded himself that she was a child of Apollo and half her job probably included making sure the infirmary was kept in a presentable manner. He, on the other hand, had spent half his life living in a magic hotel filled with invisible waitstaff and the other half sleeping around a campfire. It still didn’t console him much.

“I’m Tish,” she said, looking at him sideways with that smirk. “You must be Solace’s little boy toy.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“I’m not his-”

“You _so_ are. Give me one good reason why you’re still in this joint. That is, other than your monumental lack in height. I’m afraid we can’t cure that here.”

Nico gaped for a second and then stared at the ground, hoping to Hades that she couldn’t see the blush rising to his cheeks. He’d done enough blushing in the last few days to last him a lifetime – he didn’t need any more embarrassment. Besides, he thought, looking up, she wasn’t that much taller than him-

She was.

Nico couldn’t get away from the fact that he really was just tiny. Fuck tall people.

“There, you’re coming to realise it,” she said, “You’ve been won over by the Will Solace dream-gaze. There’s no escaping it now.”

“Shut up.” Nico gave her a cold, squinty look, but there was no icy heart behind it.

Tish laughed and nudged him. “I’m only messing with ya,” she said, “What’s your name, anyhows? Solace failed to mention it.”

“di Angelo,” he muttered, “Nico di Angelo.”

“Alright then,” she said, “Nico di Angelo. Enjoy your stay at Hotel Casablanca. Come get me if you need anything.”

Tish gave him a wink, not unlike one of Will’s, and wandered off to other patients, high-fiving a smug looking Kayla on the way.

Nico just took a deep breath and fell down onto the bed. He couldn’t wait to get out of here.

~

Nico was still worried about Will. Yes, he had slept all night (with Nico), but he still looked like he was working himself to hard. There were a lot of patients after the war, but that didn’t mean there weren’t enough children of Apollo for the doctors to have designated shifts and breaks. Will had collapsed once already – Nico didn’t want it to happen again.

He had ignored the breakfast that Kayla had brought him and had left it to sit on the desk. Things were whispering at him again in a flurry of TartarusBianca **Octavian** TartarusPainFear. It all eventually worked its way into one word – Will. It had taken until now for Nico to realise that he didn’t even know how much Will knew about him. For all Nico knew, Will just offered to help because he thought Nico was a troubled kid; he might not know just how messed up he was. That brought on the idea of talking to Will about the things that kept him up at night, but no. He wasn’t ready for that.

Instead, he chose to pull the sketchbook and pencils out from under the bed in an effort to ignore the ghosts. He had an idea.

Aside from worrying about Will, _Batman and Superman: Genesis_ had been pressing at Nico’s mind since he had woken up.

He didn’t know how long he had been drawing for but soon Will had come over to visit.

“You know the whole point of therapeutic art is to, I don’t know, vent your feelings?” Will said, inspecting Nico’s page.

“Fuck you.”

“That’s rude,” Will said.

“Well, it’s therapeutic for me.”

“It’s a picture of Batman and Superman kissing,” Will said flatly.

Nico smiled at the page. It sucked, he had to admit. His drawing skills weren’t exactly on point. However, looking at the picture it was obvious that the two figures were in fact Batman and Superman and they were indeed kissing.

“I don’t exactly have much inspiration to draw on in here.”

“You’ve just given me a fantastic idea.”

~

“Your eyes still closed?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Nico said, exasperated. He clutched his sketchbook with one hand, his other presently preoccupied by Will holding his wrist at his insistence. He hated having his eyes shut but Will had insisted upon it – there was a surprise waiting. From the sounds of wind in the trees and teenagers shouting, Nico figured Will had taken him outside.

“You realise,” Nico said, “That I hate surprises.”

“This is a good one.”

“If it goes wrong the last people will see of me is you leading me by the hand towards… the forest?”

“It’s a liability I’m willing to accept,” Will said, “You’re going to love this.”

Nico could hear the grin in his voice. He kept in a sigh.

“Careful,” Will said. They were walking over rocky ground now – Nico didn’t think it would be that hard with his eyes closed but before he knew it his foot slipped on a rock and he was falling and –

And of course he landed in Will’s arms. Great.

His eyes had opened and they were suddenly stuck staring at Will’s freckled face. Nico hadn’t really noticed them before but this close he could see-

“Easy there,” Will said, smiling down at him with a golden gleam. “I got you.”

Nico broke his gaze away from Will’s face.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. Will helped him to stand on his own two feet. Nico noticed they were now some distance from the Camp, following the trickling creek on their right. Will had a suspicious looking basket hanging from his right arm.

“Now get those eyes closed again,” Will insisted.

Nico sighed. “Do I have to? I nearly broke my ankle walking here.”

“I could always give you a piggyback?”

“Fuck off.”

When Will just stood there with his eyebrows raised, Nico just closed his eyes again and held out his wrist.

“I never realised the son of Hades had such a potty mouth,” Will said, taking his hand. They started off again.

“I never realised the son of Apollo never shut up,” Nico replied grumpily. He had been quite content sitting in the infirmary until the three days were up – he had spent the last few weeks solely outdoors. But no, Will had to take him on a _field trip_.

“So rude,” Will chided, “I just thought you’d enjoy hearing my mellifluous voice. I certainly do.”

Nico grunted in response. He didn’t even know what mellifluous meant.

“Oh come on, lighten up,” Will said, “I thought you’d enjoy the great outdoors after being cooped up in the infirmary for two days.”

“It wasn’t long enough,” Nico said, “I was kept hostage by the _Queen_ of the great outdoors for _three_ days. You’re going to have to try harder Solace.”

“Are you asking for four days?”

That shut Nico up.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” Will said.

Nico blinked his eyes open and looked around. They’d walked away from camp and around to the fireworks beach, overlooking the sparkling waters of the sound. It was weird being here during daylight – it was one of those places at Camp, like the fire-pit, that people only went to at night time. Still, it was beautiful. The emerald green grass rolled patiently down the slope towards the water. Birds chirped around the light breeze and if Nico squinted hard enough he could just see the deep blue of the ocean in the distance.

That was when Nico realised that Will was staring at him with a strange look on his face. His hand was still holding his wrist.

“Will?”

“Hm?” he replied absently.

“Let go of me.”

“Oh. Sure.”

Silence hung in the air between them. Nico was waiting for Will to explain what they were doing here but Will seemed intent on his own thoughts – he was looking blankly past Nico towards the forest.

“Will?” Nico pressed, “What are we doing here?”

Will shook his head. “Oh,” he said, “Sorry, I zoned out.” He walked to the edge of the slope and opened the basket, pulling out a blanket with a flourish.

“I thought a picnic would be nice.”

“What?”

“A picnic, you know when you-”

“I know what it is. Why?”

“Like I said earlier, you needed to get out,” said Will. He gestured to the sketch book Nico was holding. “And you said you needed some inspiration. What more inspiration could you get than out here?” He threw his arms wide in a dramatic gesture.

Nico blinked. This guy was such a dork.

“And,” said Will, still talking with his hands. “Seeing as how you still don’t look convinced, _you_ were the one insisting that I needed to take a break. This is me. Taking a break.”

Nico gave him a soft smile.

“So, are you going to join me?” Will said, collapsing onto the rug. He patted the space beside him, overlooking the water. “I brought a packed lunch.”

Nico rolled his eyes and walked over to Will, sitting beside him. Will was sprawled out, leaning backwards against his hands and shot him a grin. “I knew you couldn’t resist me.”

“It was the packed lunch I couldn’t resist,” said Nico, “Nothing to do with you.”

“Sure thing, Death Boy,” said Will.

Nico looked away, out at the water. Neither of them were saying anything, but it was the most comfortable Nico had been in days, like he had just changed out of too tight clothes. Being with Will was different than being with anyone else Nico had known – Will didn’t expect anything from him, just that he try. Even that didn’t feel like a demand. They sat and watched the Sound, the water shining back almost as bright as Will’s smile.

“So,” Will said, breaking the silence, “How are you?”

Nico looked down at his pants. Will hadn’t given him the chance to change so he was still in the grey hospital clothes that hung too loosely in all the wrong places. He thought about it.

The past couple of days he’d been cooped up with his thoughts, much like he had on the voyage, except it was different. He felt like he wasn’t dealing with it alone.

 _Well duh_ , his thoughts blanched at him, _You have been in a hospital. You’re not supposed to deal with it alone._

Besides the point, he felt as if Will genuinely cared past the duties of his job. Why else would he work himself to exhaustion, comfort Nico from nightmares and read him _bedtime stories_? It was such a strange thing to accept. Will cared. But Nico didn’t know why.

“Better,” he said after a moment, his hands fiddling with themselves in his lap. “I- I feel better.” He turned to look at Will.

Will’s smile turned soft. It was a different kind of smile than anything that Will had shown him before. For days, he had been beaming non-stop, as if he was saying _If I be happy long enough you’ll be happy_ , like Nico’s well-being was his sole goal. This smile, however, not quite filling the cheeks but all in the gentleness of his eyes, told Nico _That’s wonderful news. You don’t have to be happy, but I’m happy for you_.

“How are you?” Nico asked. Will turned to look back out at the water.

“I’m alright,” Will said. Nico was taken aback. Only alright? He had given Will the chance to be honest, but he didn’t think he would take it.

“I’m a bit tired, but nothing major, I guess,” Will said. He laughed to his lap. “Gods, I can feel myself just wanting to sit here and babble. Thanks for the opportunity, but this is about you.”

“I’m perfectly fine, just sitting here,” Nico said, “I’m enjoying the view.”

Will threw his head back and laughed. It was so easy to look at him, the son of Apollo, and see the sun. His smile gleamed all too bright and his laughter was filled with a light so brilliant it belonged in the sky. It made Nico feel small, in a good way, like he was just one of many watching the sunrise. He was content to sit and watch as Will threw his head back in joy, his curls bouncing with happiness for as long as the sun was in the sky.

“Brilliant,” said Will, “Just the excuse I need to sit here and talk about myself.”

He turned to look at the water again, the laugh falling from his face.

“To be honest, I’m really very tired,” he said, all the golden sounds gone from his voice. “Not from being in the infirmary with you; not at all. It’s just that ever since this damn war started, I haven’t stopped. I’m the head doctor at camp, I’ve got to look out for everyone. And with all the fighting, more… kids… have been getting hurt. It sucks. It sucks a lot.”

He sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said, “I’ve just been thinking about it a lot lately, after becoming the head Apollo councillor. Just that, I’m a son of Apollo and there’s only two things people expect of me. Either I uphold the wise, mythical air of my father and be a leader, the healer, looking out for everyone, or I’m like the actual Apollo – an irresponsible goof. Why do I have to be either? Why can’t I be both? Or none? Why can’t I just be me?”

Will leaned back further onto his hands, looking up at the sky. “It gets to me more than they think. I- I get the shakes, you know? And the racing heart? Anxiety has pretty much been my best friend since elementary school, but – But I’m the head councillor now. There’s a lot of people looking up to me.”

Nico considered this. “I get it,” he said simply, “I get what you mean. Everyone’s constantly looking, waiting for cracks to appear because you shouldn’t be anything more than what you’ve always been. People don’t like change. I mean, look at me.”

He paused, looking down at himself. All he could see was a skinny, pale boy with not enough anything to be worth Will’s time or effort. “People look at the son of Hades and they expect me to be this dark, ghostly figure. And yeah, I am pretty dark, I do get involved in all the death stuff. But… I’m more. So are you.”

Will gave him that smile again, all in the eyes and the softness of his face. It had nothing to do with Will being happy for him; Will was looking at him with something new. Nico had no clue what it was but he knew he’d do anything to get Will to smile like that again.

 _Tell him_ , a voice said in his head. _Tell him about your darkness_ -

Will turned suddenly and pulled over the basket, taking out a small pile of sandwiches. “They’re all the same, but I can almost guarantee that the ones Kayla made will be better,” said Will. Nico nodded as Will began to eat. He grabbed his sketchbooks from beside him and pulled open to a fresh page. He saw Will in his peripheral give him a glance, but he ignored it.

He was glad they had moved on. He wasn’t quite ready for his glass to break yet.

Will took this opportunity to jump right back into a conversation while Nico started to sketch. He started talking about this band he liked, ‘Cat Empire’. Nico didn’t know anything about the band or who Felix was, but apparently he was in a better place because the band came out with a new album and they’re singing in different languages again and it just made Will happy. He was talking about his favourite album, ‘Creature’, and how listening to it felt like waking up after a good night and everything was dreamy but real for a while.

That was how Nico felt now, watching Will. Sitting here, just looking at the boy talk, looking at the water, made him feel so at ease, like he wasn’t quite awake – it was too good to be true.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, a massive thank you to the wonderful jazzhandslazuli who constantly puts up with my writing, even when it gets to the stage of 'just get it out, just get it out'. She does a wonderful job and she has a cool fic coming out soon that you should all check out.  
> Thanks to everyone for the kudos, bookmarks and comments! I don't think I've thanked you all before and that's terrible - I can't thank you enough. It really really encourages me when you guys do that stuff and it fills me up with joy.  
> I think all the chapters from here on out (with the exception of maybe one or too) are this length and longer so enjoy!  
> See you all next week!  
> \- Will


	8. I see a wasp with her wings outstretched

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts and listenings

Nico didn’t eat much at the picnic, but he still had a good time. Afterwards, they strolled back through the woods, Will telling him more about the music he liked.

“See,” he said, “I inherited many of my father’s gifts, but music is not one of them.”

“What a shame,” Nico said.

“I know,” Will said, despondent. “I’m tragically unable to woo my multiple lovers.”

Nico laughed.

“So,” Nico said, “What else can you do?”

Will shrugged. “Not much. I’m a healer, obviously – that comes really easily. I’m a pretty good archer too, but definitely not the best. Other than that, I can’t do much else.”

“You can make me laugh,” said Nico, “That’s an accomplishment in itself.”

He didn’t know how Will could so easily coax laughs out of him, but it seemed to be as easy as watching the sun rise. Will sent him that smile again and Nico thought he would go weak at the knees-

His thoughts stopped in his tracks.

_What?_

What was he thinking?

He wasn’t-

**No.**

“You okay Nico?”

Nico blinked himself back to reality. “Hm?” He’d have time to think about that later.

“I asked you if you wanted to go back to the infirmary or we could go around camp for a while.”

Nico paused. “No,” Nico said slowly, “No, I’m good. I’ll just go back to the infirmary.”

Will looked at him for a moment, then moved on. “Yeah, so you can relish it while you can. Your last night in there, you know.”

It hadn’t even occurred to Nico that he wouldn’t be in the infirmary after that night. That is, he wouldn’t be with Will tomorrow.

“Yeah,” he said, “Sure.”

~

Will had to go back on duty after they returned, and so Nico was left to his own devices. He wasn’t in the mood for comics and not in enough of the ‘art space’ to do any sketching, so he just laid there on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to ignore any too depressing thoughts. There was a couple of hours until dinner yet, when he would see Will again. He was just about to fall into the Deep Thought Space when a voice broke him out.

“Hey little man.”

Nico looked up, not really startled, but uncomfortable enough for him to move into a sitting position unconsciously. It was Tish.

“Little man?”

“Have you looked in a mirror?”

“I’m not three years old.”

“Coulda fooled me,” said Tish, smirking a toothy grin. Nico glowered.

“What do you want?”

Tish sat down at the desk beside Nico’s bed, crossing her legs. “To talk,” Tish said, “We’re certified acquaintances, so we can do that, can’t we?”

“Talk about what?” Nico asked.

“How was your morning?”

Nico smiled despite himself.

“You got it bad,” she said.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said, “So you had a good time with our William Solace?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “We went on a picnic, out by the sound. We talked, I drew, he talked some more. It was… nice.”

“Just nice?”

“No,” he said quickly, “It was great.”

Tish gave him that smirk again.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said, looking away, a lightness in her voice.

“Why are you so interested, anyways?” he prodded. He’d barely met Tish, and now she was asking after his day? Why would she bother?

“Just want to make sure Will’s not getting himself into anything… weird,” she replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh,” she said, standing up. “You’ll figure it out someday.”

And then she was gone, whistling away to work.

And that left Nico with only one thought.

Will.

When he looked at Will, he felt something new. Something he hadn’t felt before. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew it made him happy. Will made him feel like he was a tangled ball of string, and Will was slowly unravelling him into perfect alignment. It didn’t really make sense, though. Why did Will make him happy?

But it made sense, the way he was feeling. He’d been through a lot recently – he’d faced a lot of dangers and fears and he’d let go of Percy – it was only natural that he felt so strongly about someone being so kind. It was distracting, sure, but maybe it was just what friendship was supposed to be like.

_Friendship._

What a scary concept, thought Nico.

It still didn’t make sense that Will wanted to be friends with him. It was like the Prince choosing the poor orphan kid as his partner – it was something that only happened in fairy-tales. Not in Nico’s downtrodden existence. It was all in Nico’s head, it was only because Will was being so nice and he wasn’t used to people being nice.

Why should Will be so kind to him? He knew about Octavian. He had stood there and seen what Nico had done, and as far as Will could probably tell, it hadn’t bothered Nico at all. But he was wrong. The guilt of Octavian’s death weighed him down as heavy as the idea that Leo might actually be alive. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to anyone, let alone himself, until now – that maybe the strange feeling he had experienced upon Leo’s demise actually meant he hadn’t really died. Just the prospect filled him with enough hope that it pushed away thoughts of Octavian. Maybe if he could find out Leo was alive, it would somehow make up for the fact that he had murdered Octavian.

He considered talking to Hazel about it – the chances were that she was suspicious too, and also hadn’t wanted to own up to it, but he didn’t want to give her any false hope. No, he’d keep it to himself for now, and when he was strong enough, he would investigate further. He’d tell someone if any of his planning came to fruition.

It wouldn’t do, dwelling on it now; it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. Maybe he could do some drawing to take his mind off things. He flipped the pages to what he had drawn that day at the picnic.

He blinked at the page.

It was a sketch of Will, laughing. Nico had gotten the idea after Will had started laughing at his own jokes. He was that kind of guy.

“Hi Nico!”

It was toomuchtooloudtoosudden and Nico fell backwards off the bed, taking half the sheets and his sketchbook with him.

“Fucking hell Solace, give me some warning next time!”

He could feel the heat coming off his face in bright waves. His legs were caught tight around the blankets and he struggled to get to his feet.

“Here,” Will said, “Let me help you.”

Nico felt hands pulling him gently up to his feet. However, his feet got caught in the blanket again and he just tumbled forward, into Will. His hands and face were pressed into Will; he could feel his chest –

Nico pushed back hurriedly, not even wanting to think about how red his face must be.

“Careful there,” Will said, smiling.

“Th-Thanks,” Nico stuttered.

“No problem.” Will bent down to get Nico’s sketch book, which had conveniently fallen open to _that page_.

“I’ll get it!” Nico said, all too loudly. He snatched it away before Will could touch it, snapping it shut and clutching it tight to his chest.

“…Alright,” Will said. Nico avoided his gaze, intent on keeping eye contact with the floor. Awkward didn’t even begin to describe it. It was ‘My Dad forgot my birthday and gave a present to my sister instead’ kind of awkward. And Nico didn’t even know why. He’d just fallen over.

“So,” Will said, “I guess I’ll help you make the bed again.”

“Sure,” said Nico.

After that whole fiasco was over, they were left sitting side-by-side on the bed with Nico still clutching the sketchbook to his chest.

“I figured,” started Will, “Since you know, you have trouble sleeping and all, we could try something new.”

Nico tensed. Will wasn’t going to suggest sleeping together again. It had been nice but –

 _Stop it_ , he told his head.

“I always fall asleep easier with music,” said Will, “So I’m going to lend you this.”

Will held out his hand. Lying in his flat palm was a pink device with headphones. _An ipod_ , Nico had to remind himself. Yes, he’d been in the 21st century for years now, but some things still slipped his mind, like the fact that somehow they’d made it to the moon.

“I’m not sure if you’ll be into any of the music I like, but I don’t know, I thought you could give it a try.”

Nico reached out and took the ipod. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

“Well,” said Will, “I’ll leave you to it. I’ve got to get back on duty – there’s a sick girl who needs me. Have a good sleep!”

He shot Nico a grin and practically skipped off, cheerful as always.

Nico sighed, looking down at the ipod. He might as well give it a try. Nico wasn’t exactly up to speed with the sick beats of 2015. He hadn’t really listened to any music for fun since… ever.

He turned on the screen and flicked through the artists, trying to find something he recognised. The only thing vaguely familiar was ‘Cat Empire’ – the band Will had been talking about. Nico shrugged his shoulders and clicked the first song he saw, ‘Bulls’. It was strange – it sounded like the music he could remember, but it had so much… more to it. It was simple, like the music of the 30s, and jazzy, like the music of the 30s, but the beats and melody were different, like they couldn’t keep still.

Nico laid back on the bed, getting comfortable. This was going to be his night – listening to Will’s ipod. Maybe, just maybe, if he listened to Will’s music, he could talk about it with him; make a conversation that wasn’t about eating or sleeping or his worries. Just maybe.

He had a few hours till lights off so that seemed like a plan.  He listened through the album ‘Rising With the Sun’. He liked it. A lot. Especially the song ‘Wolves’, it was kind of ironic if he thought about it. Cat Empire was interesting – like he had said, it reminded him of the 30s, but he wanted something new. What was the point of getting a second chance at life he didn’t broaden his horizons?

Still, it was like the 21st Century was a joke he couldn’t quite get – everyone was in on it and no one seemed bothered to explain it. Sure, He had spent the last four years living in it, experiencing it first-hand, but he had been alone with no tour-guide to point out the attractions and so he was still lost when it came to many modern conveniences such as _microwaves_.

Just the fact that _music_ , something he hadn’t even considered catching up on, had changed so much he could barely comprehend except for what he could link back to the 30s, showed how much he had left to experience.

He continued to flick through artists, listening to one after the other – Cat Empire, Halsey, Hozier – and one by one, a piece was added to the puzzle that was Will Solace.

Will Solace.

The boy who cared.

Nico chose one last artist, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

~

_'Cause I'm feeling like_

_I might need to be near you_

_And I feel alright, so please_

_Don't get me rescued..._

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song Nico was listening to at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwuLm1HPpSY  
> So I figured Will would be into a very very wide range of music, considering he's a child of Apollo, but I also figured he'd be super into indie stuff like Hozier and Jack's Mannequin, but with a liking towards jazzy stuff (Cat Empire). I actually like 'Two Shoes' the best, it's a really interesting album but at the point of writing this chapter, I'd only listened to 'Rising with the Sun'. The song Nico listened to, Rescued, is from an album called 'Everything in Transit' which is one of those albums you have to listen to all the way through (I don't think its a concept album, it's just how I view things)  
> I'm trying to include more characters other than Will because Nico does have important relationships/is going to have more important relationships and hopefully the introduction of Tish doesn't seem too rushed.  
> I also realised, looking back at Blood of Olympus and this fanfic, that I've forgotten two very important things: that Nico lost his bomber jacket in BoO, and that he has those scars on his biceps from the werewolf guy, Lycaon. So while those things are issues in earlier chapters, I may try to incorporate them in later chapters and I may go back and edit it to include that stuff (pretty much just the first chapter I think)  
> Once again, thanks to Jazzhandslazuli, my best friend and amazing editor, but also a thanks to MANBEAST and my other best friend Wren for helping to edit this week.  
> Anyways, I've talked a lot this week, but there was a lot I wanted to say. Thanks for all your comments/kudos, they've been really encouraging!  
> Bye!  
> \- Will


	9. He runs washing his face in his hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Releases, dining, dreams

Nico groaned and rolled over, snuggling deeper into the soft covers. The cold headphones poked painfully into his ears, now silent after a night of quiet music. Nico had woken up a few times in the night but it was definitely an improvement – no nightmares or tossing and turning. Whether that was because of the music or the fact that the last three days had left him less stressed than usual, he didn’t know.

The last _three_ days.

Nico blinked his eyes open.

He was leaving today.

Something landed on his bed with a muffled thump – his jeans and t-shirt, all washed and ironed for him. Nico looked up to see Will standing over him, looking down with his eyebrows raised.

“Morning, Death Boy,” he said, giving him a smile. “You’re having breakfast with the rest of the camp today.”

Nico kept in a groan and sat up, running a hand through his hair. He hated ‘Death Boy’ but it was still better than ‘Sunshine’. The fact that he was having breakfast in the dining pavilion, seeing Percy and everyone for the first time in days, was a whole other worry that he really didn’t want to go into just yet. The infirmary had held off the world for three days and he hadn’t had to even _think_ about seeing anyone again. It was like his own little bubble, and it was about to pop from the hundreds of eyes that would be pin pricking him.

“I also got this for you,” Will said, tossing something else onto the bed. Lifting it up, Nico realised it was a plain, black hoodie.

“I always saw you walking around in that big bomber jacket so I thought you might appreciate something else to cover up.”

“Thanks Will,” Nico mumbled, staring at the hoodie in disbelief. Will had gotten him a present. Why?

“No problem, Sunshine,” he said, “All that’s left for us to do is one final check-up.”

Nico gave him a look, keeping in a sigh.

“It won’t take long,” said Will, “I promise. Can I have your wrist?”

Nico held out his hand and Will turned it over, pressing his fingers to Nico’s pulse, another hand pressing against his head. It only took a moment, and soon Will was pulling back.

“Can I check the werewolf scars?”

Nico nodded shortly and rolled up his sleeves, giving him an odd tank-top look. Will gently rolled his bicep around, running his fingers over the scars – it didn’t hurt at all, but it felt like a ghostly touch, like his sense were numbed.

“They’re healing well,” said Will, “But still, keep an eye on them. Come get me if anything changes.”

“Sure.”

“Well,” said Will, standing up, “I would do a complete physical, but I know you’re just dying to get out into the world. You’re all good to go. See you at breakfast.”

He shot Nico a wink and walked off, leaving him looking miserably at his clothes. Three days ago, he had thought that he couldn’t wait to get out of the infirmary and away from the prying eyes of Will Solace. Now, he could feel his heart hammer in his chest over just the _prospect_ of stepping outside the infirmary doors. He liked the bubble. In fact, he’d be quite content if the bubble just floated away right there and then, taking him and the infirmary and Will Solace with it. But no, the bubble had to be popped. It was inevitable.

He dressed quickly, his skull t-shirt and jeans smelling softly of daisies. He slipped on the hoodie – immediately shoving his hands in the pockets. It was black and baggy in all the right places, hiding him away almost as well as the bomber jacket had. It was a bit big on him, but not so big as to make him look ridiculous – it was soft, warm and safe. He loved it.

~

Nico kept his head down, hands stuffed in his pockets as he strode out of the infirmary. He blinked, stepping into the sun.

Wow.

He was out.

The bubble hadn’t quite popped yet but it was straining against the light.

Now he just hoped that he would be left alone. What a wish that was.

Will bounded up beside him, for once out of his doctor’s clothes. He was wearing Spiderman pyjama pants with a green hoodie advertising the strawberry farm front of the camp. The green contrasted with Will’s eyes.

“Do you like your new jacket, Death Boy?”

“Don’t call me that,” Nico grumbled. They started walking towards the dining pavilion, where Nico could see the other campers gathering.

“Alright then, Sunshine,” said Will, “But do you like it?”

Nico sighed. “Yes,” he said, “Of course I do.”

“Brilliant,” Will beamed.

“What’s with your grand choice of clothing?”

“I had the night shift. Soon as breakfast is over, I’m off to bed. Well, after I make sure you get back to your cabin okay.”

“What?”

“You know, I just wanted to walk you back.”

“Why? You don’t need to do that.”

“’Course I do. Gotta make sure you’re all safe, sound and settled.” He paused and laughed. “Alliteration, hell yeah.”

“You’re a dork.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“And it’s the nicest thing you’ll ever hear.”

“Harsh.”

“You bet.”

Will laughed, grinning.

He was always _God damn grinning. Why was he so happy all the time? How was he so happy all the time?_

“So you’re allowed to skip Camp activities just like that?”

“And you don’t?”

“No one notices anyway,” said Nico, “You’re avoiding the question.”

Will looked at his feet. “Infirmary staff have been getting a lot of excuses lately.”

Nico looked at the ground. There were a lot of kids hurt after the war, and he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt. If he had just moved the Athena Parthenos faster, or not been so useless along the entire trip-

“But,” said Will, “That should be stopping soon. Most of the patients seem to be making a full recovery!” He gave Nico a sideways look.

The rest of the Camp was heading up to the Dining Pavilion, sorting themselves into their cabin lines. Briefly, Nico noticed Percy with his arm around Annabeth, laughing at something she had said. He planted a rough kiss on her cheek before bounding off to Tyson to line up, greeting him with a clumsy high-five that nearly keeled him over. Nico smiled to himself. Gods Percy could be a dork sometimes. What had he seen in him?

“Right,” said Will, “I better go. See you on the flip side!”

“Um, yeah,” Nico said absently, pulling his gaze away from Percy. Will shot him a quick smile.

And with that Will was off, bouncing over to the front of his own cabin. He looked so at ease, standing at the front as leader in only his pyjamas – it was ridiculous.

Nico looked around – usually all the cabins followed the silly ritual of filing up to the pavilion in order but he didn’t know where he was supposed to stand. He was a party of one after all, and he hadn’t eaten a meal at Camp Half-Blood in an age.

He spotted Jason, walking away from Piper and moving to the back of the group. Nico hadn’t talked to him in days, but he figured now was as good a time as any. It was better than the alternative of wandering blindly with no clue as to where he was supposed to sit.

He made his way over to Jason, pulling up beside him quietly.

“Hey.”

Jason jumped, his glasses jostling over his face.

“Nico?” Jason said, “Holy Zeus where the Hades have you been?”

Nico blinked. Had he forgotten to-

He had.

“Whoops,” he said, “I, uh. I’ve been in the infirmary.”

Jason looked like he was about to die right then and there.

“I’m fine though,” Nico said defensively, holding his hands up. “I’m fine, really. Will Solace, the head healer, just wanted me to… recuperate. There was really nothing wrong.”

Jason eyed him suspiciously. “You sure?”

“Yes!” Nico half-shouted, exasperated. “I’m as good as I can be.”

That was the biggest lie you’ve ever told, Nico thought.

“If you say so,” said Jason.

They were silent for a moment. Nico rubbed the werewolf scars on his arms. Nico danced around the possibility about mentioning Leo… or Octavian. He had come to trust Jason, more than he thought he would, and he thought maybe he could open up about the things that were bothering him. Was now really the time? He could almost feel Jason wanting to say something, but whether it was about Leo, he didn’t know.

That was when the rest of the Camp began to move up to the Dining Pavilion. Nico said a few more words to Jason before sitting at the only empty table, ignoring the glances from Chiron and the other campers. His bubble popped. It felt like he was a model on a runway, everyone watching his every move and judging it for perfection. He’d do anything not to be here – but Will had asked him to.

He gave a quick once over of the Pavilion. There was about twice the amount of campers hanging about than there had been the last time Nico had been at camp, along with a dozen or so more tables. Just looking at the numbers reminded Nico that all of it was thanks to Percy. Percy Jackson, who had turned down the Gods for _love_. After all this time, Nico had finally come to realise that Percy hadn’t given up immortality just for Annabeth. It was bigger than that.

Ever since Percy had known he was a half-blood, he’d been raised into a hero, made into something loveable for the world and because Percy was Percy, he loved the world back. He gave up immortality, gave up the Gods, because he saw kids needing to be loved, and he was going to do his best to do that for them. He just didn’t know when to stop – Will had had to turn him down for the councillor program so he could recover. Even after everything the Olympians had done to him, Percy Jackson loved harder than any God could.

Nico sighed. Everyone seemed happy in their own little groups (ignoring the Hermes table, which was still a little too big for what Hermes could manage), chatting and gossiping like any other kids. Even Will was.

Will was over with the Apollo campers, filing up to cast a portion of their meal into the fire as offering. He was laughing and joking, genuinely looking like he was having fun. Of course he was.

Nico turned his attention back to the bare table in front of him. It seemed to know that:

  1. He didn’t want to be here.
  2. He wasn’t particularly interested in eating anything, and so there wasn’t even a plate for him to eat off of.



What a great meal this was going to be.

‘Food’ and ‘Nico di Angelo’ had a complicated relationship that was less like a messy divorce and more like ‘we’re on a break’. Nico occasionally dabbled with food, but mostly they didn’t see each other and preferred the company of others. He was happy with this; his badgering relative, appetite, wasn’t. Well, today he was ignoring appetite and visiting his good friend self-doubt.

He tried to avoid looking at Will, he really did, but every time his thoughts drifted he found himself thinking of that golden smile and lo and behold, he was staring right at it with Will staring right back. Every time, he could feel his face turning scarlet and he would look away, pretending he was just casually observing his surroundings.

He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve someone like Will doing so much for him, going out of his way so that Nico was okay. Nico was the type of kid people gave up on before they even said hello. They treated him like a joke and no one wanted to stick around for the punchline. But apparently Will did. It just wasn’t something that should happen. He didn’t want to drag Will down with him – the guy should have so much more than anything Nico had offer. He’d just be wasting his time if they were friends.

The only solution was for Nico to… avoid him. He didn’t want Will Solace, a perfectly nice young boy, going out of his way to help a lost-cause like him. He’d had his three days of fun in the infirmary, playing pretend with the perfect boy, now it was time to let it all go and move on with life at Camp.

Except it wasn’t that easy.

As soon as the last piece of toast had been eaten and Chiron had dismissed the group, Will was back at his side, happy as always.

“Have a good breakfast, Death Boy?”

Nico just looked at him.

“Oh come on,” Will said, exasperated. “Lighten up on the whole ‘Son of Hades’ thing. You’re at a Summer Camp for Demigods, we’re here to have fun.”

“At least some people are.”

“Then let’s go,” Will said. He turned and walked off, with such a confidence that Nico would follow that he couldn’t resist.

“What’re you going to do with your newfound freedom?” Will asked as they strolled along.

Kids were already bustling around them, shooting arrows, climbing trees; the sound of swords clinking echoed around them mixed among the constant chatter. It was a normal day at Camp. Nico could go do some sword practice or –

“I just want to settle back into my cabin.”

“Fair enough,” he said, “I’m looking forward to just standing _still_. I haven’t done that since the war started.”

They walked on in silence. They’d come to the Cabins. There wasn’t anyone around there that time of day, with the exception of Clovis, sleeping peacefully on the Hypnos Cabin veranda. The Hades Cabin was at the head of the courtyard, to the right of the Zeus Cabin. Even though it was positioned just like any other cabin in the area, it stood out, alone like a dark monolith. Nico didn’t know if it was like Hades was the dark protector, the bystander to all of his brother’s quarrelling; or if it was supposed to be Hades, the disturbed outcast from his brother’s ruling.

They walked up to the door, standing on the steps of the Cabin.

“So,” Will said, “I guess this is it.”

Nico stared at his feet, scuffing them at the ground. “Yeah. I suppose it is.”

Will waited like he was waiting for Nico to say something more. Nico adamantly avoided his gaze, intent on not letting his heart flutter like it was waking the dead.

It wasn’t fair.

Will sighed.

“Well,” he said, “I’ll see you around.”

He bounded down the steps but there was something missing in his pace – he wasn’t like an excitable puppy anymore.

Nico looked up; Will Solace was walking away from him.

“Hey Will,” he said, just loud enough that he could hear. Will turned slightly, his hands shoved in his pockets and his hair blowing in the wind like a willow tree.

“Thanks.”

A grin ran its way up Will’s face, showing off his pearly white teeth.

“No problem at all, Nico.”

~

He dumped his sketch book and pencils on the dresser and looked around.

His room was still as dark, dank and deserted as he had left it. When Hazel was there, her liveliness had fought back the shadows and to be frank, he missed it. He considered Iris-calling her again, but he didn’t want to bother her – she was probably busy.

Maybe he could Iris-message Reyna, even. He hadn’t talked to her since she had left. But what would he say?

Nico ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Well, this was it. What he had been waiting three days to do. He rubbed the scars on his arms.

He didn’t know how but as usual, he ended up on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He figured he would have been sick of lying down after three days of non-stop bed rest, but he just couldn’t be bothered to do anything. He just wanted to relish his own company.

Nico wondered if Will was doing the same – just grateful for a moment of rest after constant work. They really did work him too hard. Just because he was the head of the Cabin didn’t mean he had to do it all by himself.

Nico sighed and rolled over. He really should stop thinking about the boy. He was trying to get his thoughts straight: He didn’t particularly need any of the help Will gave; he didn’t deserve it but he was grateful for what Will had done. The biggest thing was that he didn’t want Will to waste his time on him – he wasn’t worth it. Will would soon be bored with him.

The best way to stop his feelings in his tracks was to not talk to Will anymore – it just made sense. If he stayed away, his feelings would dim, he wouldn’t have to worry about whether he deserved human attention or not, and Will would be able to go on with his life. Simple.

Except he couldn’t stop thinking about him. His eyes, his laugh, the way he said Nico’s name – it all completed Nico di Angelo like he had been waiting his whole life just to meet him. Will Solace just seemed to _know_ anything Nico needed, whether Nico liked it or not.

~

Nico woke up with his heart pushing itself out of his chest, his hands scrabbling for a sword that wasn’t there. He held a trembling hand in front of his face, making a hundred per cent certain that it was definitely there and it was _definitely_ solid.

“Fuck,” he cursed. He curled in on himself, clutching at his sides. He couldn’t catch his breath over the fire burning in his chest. It was too much. A whimper escaped his lips among the heaving breaths. The whimper turned into a sob and he was crying into his knees, trying to catch a breath that simply wasn’t there. His hands went to his hair, pulling desperately as his feet kicked at the blankets. There was something there in the shadows and nothing at the same time, calling out to him, running around his senses like a dark horse. He cursed again, pulling his knees up to his face as sobs and breaths wracked through him like they couldn’t quite decide what they wanted to be.

He wanted it to go away. He wanted the bad dreams, the bad memories, the bad feelings, to just _go away_. They’d been there for so long and they were as persistent as the passing of time – something he could always count on to be there.

Will had helped. For three wonderful days Will had somehow managed to help push back the ghosts around him, but that didn’t mean he had stopped them at all. No one could. It just wasn’t how it worked. Just because someone so brilliant had been giving him attention for a few days, distracting him from his head, didn’t mean that all his problems would be solved.

The ghosts were still there, reaching out for him, reminding him of his mistakes and problems and dragging him back to Tartarus. They wouldn’t leave.

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that, just trying to breathe into his legs, but by the time the flame in his chest died down, the barest beam of sunlight was filtering in under the door.

He stared down at his legs, his thoughts, his heart, his mind; empty.

Empty.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't a hug fan of this chapter at first but jazzhandslazuli, my darling editor, said she liked it so now I like it a bit more. She has her amazing Jaspidot fic up now so pls go and read!  
> I just thought I'd take a quick moment to finally actually introduce myself. I'm Will, 17 next week and living in Australia and you can find me at my tumblr on skulmanandisayhi.tumblr.com.  
> As always, thank you for the amazing comments! (shout out to That1BeatBoxer who leaves amazing comments! Its very encouraging and means so much)  
> Also if you want the song the title and chapter titles are based off, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DCav8NvbQQ   
> It's 'The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!' - Sufjan Stevens  
> Alright, see you next week!  
>  \- Will


	10. I see the wasp on the length of my arm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Archery, the infirmary, the Apollo Cabin

Nico was still frozen on his bed when there came a knock on the door.

He blinked himself out of the stillness, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Who would be looking for him at this time of –

It was 11am.

Oh.

He pried his body from his stiff position, cast a quick look in the mirror. He didn’t look like he’d been crying, but the sunken eyes, ruffled hair and sallow skin seemed particularly poignant today.

There was the knock again.

Nico kept in a groan. To say he wasn’t in the mood for conversation was an understatement; he wasn’t in the mood for anything.

Still, he made his way over, put on his best scowl (which wasn’t hard considering how he felt) and opened the door.

Will Solace was standing on his front steps with the happiest grin Nico had ever seen.

“Morning!” he said cheerfully.

“No,” Nico said bluntly. And with that, he shut the door in Will’s face. He didn’t need Will and his happy-go-lucky attitude right now, he just needed to sleep.

“Oh come on,” said Will through the door. “I was just coming to say hi.”

Nico didn’t bother to answer. “Well, not just that,” Will continued. “I didn’t see you at dinner last night, and I was worried, so I came up to check on you to make sure everything was alright.”

Will was worried about him. _God damn it_. Nico closed his eyes. He wished Will would just… stop.

“I thought,” he said, “We could spend the day together? You know, just hanging out.”

He really sounded like he was telling the truth. But still, Nico didn’t want him wasting his time on his good-for-nothing self. He could just tell him to go away. It was as easy as-

“Well,” said Will, something missing from his voice. “I just thought I’d let you know. If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

Something pinched inside him and Nico opened the door. Will was already at the foot of the stairs, his hands stuffed in his pockets and looked as downtrodden as an animal at the circus.

“Will, wait,” he said.

Will looked over his shoulder at him, a curious look on his face.

“What did you have in mind?”

And that smile was there again.

~

Will was walking backwards in front of him, practically skipping.

“I’ve got the morning off from the infirmary,” Will said, “Ben’s got me covered, but I’ve also got to teach an archery class. I figured you could come; learn how to shoot.”

Nico considered this. He kept his head down, the sunlight pushing at his eyes like pins after his half-sleepless night.

“Sounds good,” Nico said. He kept in a yawn. Will let Nico catch up so that he was beside him – that didn’t mean he didn’t have to stop walking backwards though.

“How’d you sleep last night?” He asked, “Any nightmares?”

Nico thought about telling him, but no, revealing details of the previous night would just make him worried and ruin the ‘Get Will Solace to Go Away’ mission. The mission wasn’t really working out, considering Nico was following him all the way to the archery fields with little protest.

“I was fine,” Nico said, lifting his head so he seemed sincere. “No worries.”

“Great,” Will flashed him a smile. “Do you think you’ll give archery a _shot_.”

Nico gave him a look. “Very funny,” he said. “But if you make one more terrible pun I might just have to back down.”

“Nico you deny one of the best parts of my very being,” said Will, “My wonderful sense of humour that’s always right on _target_.”

“I hate you.”

“I know,” Will said.

The archery field was set a little ways away from the cabins, in a plain field. On one end, a series of targets sat with red bullseyes while on the other about a dozen campers milled around.

Already Nico could feel his heart rate increase. He hadn’t spent time around any of these campers in… forever. He didn’t count breakfast yesterday, he had sat alone the entire time, but this would involve being _social_. His pace slowed. Will noticed immediately.

“Hey,” he said softly, “It’s going to be okay. You’re all here for the same thing – to learn the basics of archery. It’s no big deal.”

Nico nodded despite the drumbeat in his chest.

“Alright!” Will shouted towards the kids. “Get in line!”

~

Getting in line involved the group of teens to file up evenly in front of the twelve targets – not an easy task for approximately two dozen ADHD demigods ranging from the age of eight to seventeen. Lucky enough for Nico, there seemed to be an odd number of demigods and so he was left at the end of the line by himself. What a relief.

Some other kid, around the age of ten, came wandering up to him with a questioning expression but a quick, cold glare sent him scurrying away. Nico was briefly reminded of the fear held by most of the younger campers when it came to children of the Underworld, but it was soon cast aside when he saw Will. He was wearing his orange camp shirt over a blue skivie, completely ignoring the heat on the mid-summer day. Nico disregarded that fact that he was wearing all black; it wasn’t relevant.

He still wanted to go back inside and ignore this silly request but again, when Will Solace asked him to do something with that sparkling look in his eyes, it was hard for Nico to say no.

He watched as Will walked among the young demigods, showing them how to stand properly, take their aim, pull the string back _just_ right. He talked animatedly, as he always did with Nico, and with a kind of enthusiasm that made the watcher feel as if they were the only person on the planet in that moment. The kids let their arrows loose, most missing the target by a mile, but still obviously overjoyed at the prospect of shooting a bow.

Nico regarded the bow on the ground before him. He dared it to be difficult. He picked it up and assumed what he thought what a standard archer’s position was, and tried to pull the string back. Emphasis on tried.

The string was much tauter than Nico had expected and so he was barely able to pull the bowstring back a fraction. His hands shook, his fingers ached and he had to let it go before he even had a chance to take aim.

It was his arms. He wasn’t strong enough. Sure, he’d been training since he’d been freed from Gaia’s grasp, but that didn’t change that he was still underweight, still as weak as a single twig. He could swordfight fine, but he figured that was only because he could manipulate the leverage of his weapon to best put his weight behind it.

He tried to pull the string back again.

“Woah there.”

Nico cast a glance away from the targets. It was Will.

Will walked up to him. “Careful,” he said, “You might take someone’s eye out.”

Nico let go of the string; it snapped against his forearm with a spark of searing pain. He hissed in protest, shaking it away from him. He just had to do that in front of Solace, didn’t he?

“You alright?” Will asked. He took Nico’s arm and flipped it over, carefully checking for any marks. Satisfied that Nico would manage to survive, he tapped it. “You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks,” Nico mumbled. He glanced past Will. All the other kids were enthusiastically shooting blunt arrows every which way across the field, leaving the sky a hurricane of sticks.

“Can I have a turn?”

Nico nodded. He took the bow from Nico’s grasp and raised it with a familiar ease, pulling the string back like it was nothing, a serene look on his face.

“Watch,” he said. He stood on his side, his eyes lined up with the arrow. After a single second of adjustment, he let it fly, swift as a shooting star across the empty field. The arrow hit the target dead-on and was met with a series of stares, murmurs and whistles – he was the first marksmen to hit anything that day.

 “Your turn,” Will said, seemingly oblivious to the gapes of the other campers. He handed the bow over to Nico. Nico swallowed and tried to mimic Will’s stance, standing awkwardly with his feet under his shoulders. He knocked the arrow in the string and lined up, trying to pull back the thin line. It barely moved before the arrow fell to the ground. _Great_ , Nico thought, _Now Will gets to see how weak I am_.

“Having trouble?” Will interrupted.

“I can’t pull the string back enough,” mumbled Nico, keeping his eyes on the ground.

“That’s chill,” Will said nonchalantly, “Nothing to worry about.” He stepped forward. “May I?”

Nico didn’t know what Will had in mind but he shrugged his shoulders anyways. “Sure.”

Will stepped behind him and Nico watched him cautiously over his shoulder, his heart beating in his chest.

“Just relax,” Will said.

And then Will’s hands were on him, at his wrists. Nico instantly tensed up as tight as a coiled snake, his shoulders rising and his arms shrinking into his chest.

“Is this okay?” Will asked, his voice soft and close to Nico’s ear.

Nico hesitated. Every point where Will’s body touched his felt like a crackling fire was breaking out, searing across his skin painfully. He was used to this; it was what happened whenever someone touched him, but with Will it was different. The touches weren’t consuming, just a gentle reminder that Will was there with him.

“I-” Nico started, swallowing, “Yes. It’s fine.”

And with that, Nico became lost in Will. He could feel Will’s smile against his face like it was the only sense of touch he needed to worry about. They were in their own bubble, the only thing that mattered was the prospect of shooting the bow.

“Alright,” said Will, “The first thing to do is knock the arrow…”

Will lifted Nico’s arms up like he was a puppet on strings, the boy watching like it was not his own body moving. Will positioned them so that he was holding the bow without pulling the string back. His body lined seamlessly into Nico’s, like they were two pages of a book. Nico could feel Will’s breath in his hair, warm and as light as a summer’s breeze.

“Pull back.”

Will guided Nico’s hand back so that the string was drawn. He was taking most of the strain so Nico felt almost no pressure on his arms. Will took a breath, consuming Nico’s own air, and leaned even more into Nico, presumably so he could take aim. Silence hung between them as delicate as a piece of glass, the chattering of the other campers unable to permeate their little bubble of existence.

“And release.”

The arrow flew across the field, hitting the target with a satisfying _twang_. They stayed like that, frozen for a second, a comfortable sense of awe held between them. Nico looked up at Will to grin, a bubbly warmth of glee rising up inside his chest. That had been really cool – they’d hit it right on target. He’d actually done it. Will beamed back with a smile that made Nico’s stomach melt like an ice cream on a sunny day.

“Well done,” he said in a low voice. Nico looked away, heat rising to his cheeks.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. Will stepped away, the bubble burst, and Nico almost, _almost_ missed the feeling of him pressed into his spine.

~

Nico never did pull the bowstring back by himself, but he was okay with that.

The morning flew by quickly, with Will flitting about among the other kids, adjusting bow-grips and aim whenever he saw fit, and soon it was lunch time. Will and Nico walked back towards the dining pavilion.

“I have duty now,” Will said, “So I guess I’ll see you at the campfire tonight.”

“What?” Nico said, “What about spending the day together? And lunch?”

Will smirked. “Desperate to spend more time with me, Death Boy?” Will laughed and threw an arm around him, drawing Nico close.

Nico was by no means prepared and a flare of panic rose up through his body.

It was toomuchtoosuddentoohard.

He tensed and shoved Will away without thinking.

They were left there, the act standing between them as wide as a deep abyss. Nico’s eyes widened, panic rising at the thought of what he’d just done.

“I’m sorry, I-”

“It’s fine,” Will said quickly, looking away. “I forgot. I’m sorry.”

Nico panicked. Will was obviously upset. Why had he done that? He was just so stupid, he couldn’t even-

“It’s okay,” Will said, breaking him away from his thoughts. “It’s just one little thing. Neither of us need to worry about it.” Will was back in front of him, his eyebrows raised in a concerned look.

Nico nodded, despite the thoughts raging in his head. He took a deep breath and tried to just concentrate on what Will was saying right then and there.

“Let’s go to the infirmary then. You can help out for the afternoon.”

Nico blanched, screwing his face up in confusion. “Why would you want a son of Hades in a place of healing?”

“Because I like the way he looks,” Will smirked. The whirlwind of Nico’s thoughts suddenly dissipated and Nico was left flushing as red as a stop. This was not happening.

“I- I-”

“Come on,” said Will, smiling down at him. “It’ll be fun. Let’s go.”

~

They clattered up the front steps, their footsteps echoing on the wooden floor. Another boy, with the same crystal blue in his eyes as Will, shuffled out. The bags under his eyes and his slumped shoulders dampened the usual piercing effect that Will’s eyes had.

“Ben!” Will said cheerfully, “How’s things?”

Ben just gave him a blank look. “I am _so_ fucking tired. You’re covering me _right_ fucking now so I can go get some fucking sleep.”

Nico could see Ben’s hands slowly clenching into fists as he talked.

Will blinked. “Alright,” he said, swallowing. “You go do that.”

Ben shoved his doctor’s coat into Will’s hands and shuffled away immediately with a strange earnest in his step, almost falling down the stairs.

“Thanks for covering me!” Will shouted after him, but the boy was already halfway to the Apollo Cabin.

“What was that about?” Nico asked.

“Well,” said Will, “Ben hates working in the infirmary. Unfortunately for him, healing is the only power he received from our father and with all the extra help needed here, this was pretty much his only choice for giving aid after the war.”

“Wow,” said Nico, looking after the distant figure of Ben. “Sucks to be him.”

Will lifted his shoulders in a slight laugh. “Sure does.”

The infirmary wasn’t exactly at peak-hour, considering most of the patients were bed-ridden and had just been given their lunch. Kayla had just gotten on shift, double checking the clipboards at the end of every patient’s bed, and so there wasn’t much to do.

“You were talking about lunch?” Will said. They were sitting at the desk next to Nico’s old bed. Two plates stood between them and Will had a Tupperware container in his hands.

“It’s your old favourite,” said Will. He opened the container and held it towards Nico. “Salad.”

Nico blinked. “That’s not the same-”

“I don’t know, to be perfectly honest,” said Will distastefully, “Let’s find out.”

It was obviously not fresh, with the leaves sticking together in darker greens but Nico reasoned that it _couldn’t_ be the same salad he had eaten while he was there last – the infirmary must have had health and safety rules about food they had to upkeep.

His stomach still growled at the sight of the frankly disgusting looking food, but Nico ignored it. After the cold terrors of last night, he still wasn’t that hungry.

Will had already started to dig in, forking his way around the particularly gross leaves.

“You need to eat,” Will said, without looking up, “You didn’t have breakfast.”

Nico stared at him for a moment, getting his mind ready to protest, but what was the point? Why didn’t he want to eat? He had an appetite, a _want_ even, for food, but his head just decided ‘No, you’re better off without it’. But why? He questioned. There was no reason for it, but that didn’t mean it held no power over him.

Nico picked up his fork and stabbed at his salad. His stomach flipped at thought of ingesting it, but he shoved it in his mouth anyway. It was a start.

“Did you hear about capture the flag tonight?” said Will, digging around his meal.

Nico gave him a look. It wasn’t like he had been part of the camp to hear about any news.

“Right,” said Will, “Well, there’s capture the flag tonight. Do you think you’ll join in?”

“Depends,” said Nico, “Who’s playing?”

“Ares versus Athena,” said Will, “Apollo’s going with Athena, as usual. Ares has Hermes for sure, as well as Nike. I’m not sure who else is with Athena other than us and Poseidon, so we’ll see how things turn out.”

Nico paused for a moment. He hadn’t played a game of capture the flag in the longest time – the war games at Camp Jupiter just didn’t compare. Will seemed dead-set on getting him to participate in _something_ in the camp. Capture the Flag didn’t sound that awful in comparison to say, Pegasus riding. Fine.

“You can count Hades with Athena as well then,” said Nico.

Will grinned a smile filled with a mix of mischief and joy. “This is going to be a great capture the flag.”

~

The afternoon went by uneventfully. Will had Nico follow him around with a trolley of medicine that he helped hand out to the patients. It wasn’t exactly scintillating work, but watching Will talk and laugh with the patients was enough to keep Nico entertained.

Nico just couldn’t comprehend how someone could be so much of a people person, and yet chose to spend their spare time with someone like him, who preferred to stay inside all day by himself rather than chat up any stranger in sight. Will just talked with such an unprecedented ease and familiarity that the patients had no reason to not trust him. It was incredible. Nico, on the other hand, liked to just sit and listen. Listening to Will was like listening to his favourite stories, every sentence stringing him on towards the plot twists of Will’s life.

Will worked the day away, barely taking time for rest while he scurried along the aisles, making sure every patient was as comfortable as they could be. There was only so much Nico could do, and soon he was left with his sketch book and pencils, back on his bed. He still wasn’t exactly a master at his craft, but he was definitely progressing. He drew Will as he worked, trying to capture the caring look held deep in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he could draw it just right yet.

The hours whiled away and Nico was close to drowsing off when a familiar voice woke him.

“Nico?”

He looked up at Will. “Hm?”

“Dinner time.”

~

They walked up to the pavilion, Nico keeping close to Will’s side. He didn’t like being out and about with all these people again when all he was going to do was sit alone. He considered shadow-travelling to escape to his cabin, but he doubted he had fully regained his strength or that Will would be particularly overjoyed at his ventures.

So, when the time came to march up to the dining pavilion, Nico was left to wander up alone, trailing behind the crowd of campers. He resigned himself to his empty table and was about to put his head on his arms to rest when suddenly Will.

“Uh-uh,” said Will, “You’re not pulling the whole son of Hades thing tonight.”

Nico glared. “What do you mean?”

“You’re coming to sit with the Apollo Cabin. We need to talk strategy for the game.”

Nico flicked his eyes over to where Chiron was sitting. He was conflicted after working himself up for some alone time, that was now getting stolen away from him so that he could sit and talk to _other people_.

“What about the rules?”

“Already talked to Chiron about it,” said Will, “He approved the whole thing.”

Nico cast one more look over to Chiron, desperately hoping that Will had said was false. The centaur nodded his head in approval. Nico sighed.

“Fine.”

“Fantastic,” Will grinned. Will was practically bouncing as they made their way to the already over-crowded Apollo table. There were around fifteen campers squeezed into the two benches and Nico saw no feasible way of fitting Will in there, let alone himself. Just the idea of being pressed against complete strangers sent a fire down his spine.

“No way,” he said, holding his hands up. “I’m out. We won’t fit.”

“Nonsense,” said Will, “We just need to do some rearranging.”

Will proceeded to shove himself in amongst two girls, wriggling around so that they shuffled away amidst groans of protest.

“Come on Nico,” said Will, patting the small space beside him. “Strategy time.”

Nico considered the space and how small it was and how close he would be to Will and the girl on the other side and he would probably be touching feet with the girl across the table and –

Will gave him that pleading look and all Nico could do was try and make himself as small as possible as he squeezed between Will and the other girl. He was pressed up almost uncomfortably against Will and the other girl’s elbow was digging into his side but somehow he was okay with it because Will’s thighs were against his; albeit one was jigging up and down a hundred miles an hour.

“Hi,” said the girl, holding a hand out in the cramp space. “I’m Jeong-Hui.” She smiled with the same bright smile as Will. Nico glanced at the hand before warily taking it.

“Nico.”

“Great.”

“Alright everyone,” said Will over the racket, “This is Nico, as you all probably know, Camp Half-Blood’s resident son of Hades.”

Nico was expecting a chorus of groans, but instead received a wave of various greetings and hand gestures.

“Nico,” said Will, taking a deep breath, “This is Kit, Grace, Kayla, Emmett, Brittany, Jeong-Hui, Clover, Carlos, Tish, Tyler, Ben, Jordan, River, and Jennifer.” Will paused. “Have I missed anyone?”

A boy of around twelve up the other end of the table raised his hand. “Me!”

“Shut-up Ryan,” Will said without looking.

Nico blinked. He’d barely had one sibling; how could someone cope with this many?

“Well, now that we’ve all gotten acquainted,” said Will, “I’d like to get this meeting to order!”

He tapped the cup in front of him on the table. “Aside from any of the obvious demands of capture the flag, anybody have any points they’d like to raise?”

“More chairs?” came a distant voice. It sent a chorus of laughter that broke off into a sad ‘huh’.

“Chiron’s thinking about it,” said Will, “Anything else? No? Then let’s get down to business.”

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just wanted to apologise for disappearing for so long without any explanation. Third term Grade Twelve kind of killed me and I just needed a break from everything. However, I promise that if I do need to take a hiatus again for some reason, I'll let you all know. Right now, I can't promise regular/weekly updates but I promise it will be at least monthly. This fic still has quite a stretch to go. While HOO is no longer the thing I'm super into right now (tho it inevitably will be at some point), I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish this because Nico will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you all to the commenters and kudo-clickers. I'll see you next chapter!
> 
> \- Will


	11. All of my powers, day after day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Capture the Flag

The Apollo Cabin led the way towards the forest. They jostled about with such a warm sense of familiarity and joy that Nico couldn’t help feel like he was intruding. After the strangely business-like cabin meeting, the Apollo kids had worked out their strategy, leaving Will to confer with Annabeth over the matter.

It was the first Capture the Flag since the war. The first Capture the Flag without the threat that this was preparation for actual battle looming over them all. The first Capture the Flag that was purely _for fun_. Tensions were high, to say the least, and everybody just hoped that Clarisse wouldn’t go overboard with the war tactics.

The plan was for Percy to stay by the dividing creek that marked the border as the primary defence for the Blue team. The Apollo Cabin would sneak into the trees, scattering across the forest to be both offense and defence, while Athena stayed close to the flag. That left two small parties to sneak into the Red’s territory and seize the flag - that was where Nico came into it. Him and Will would approach the flag from the right side of the base, while the other team (two Athena campers) circled around to the left.

Nico was both surprised and thrilled at the prospect of being some use. He hadn’t thought they’d use him at all, given how little most of the camp trusted him, but the Apollo Cabin had claimed he could use his whole ‘Son of Hades thing’ to their advantage. Will had strongly protested to his use of Shadow-travelling (much to Nico’s distaste) but had agreed that he was probably more suited to a recon mission, keeping to the shadows rather than being outright offensive.

He was also glad to keep some distance between himself and Percy, not exactly eager to confront the son of Poseidon after his confession the other day. It would be better for both of them if they just stayed apart.

The entire camp was crowded around Chiron, where he stood on the crest of a small hill, a flag in either hand. Will was back by his side, grinning as always, and they watched as Annabeth and Clarisse climb up the hill, confident, competitive smirks painted across their faces. They exchanged some words, filled with their ambitious plans for the night and then grabbed their respective flags.

“Alright!” Shouted Chiron, “At the sound of the horn, the games will begin. You have ten minutes!”

A cheer resounded through the crowd of demigods. Annabeth raised the Blue flag high, facing the rest of the team.

“Let’s go!”

~

They crept through the forest, the only sound their footsteps crunching on the undergrowth, their only light the faint stars shimmering above them. With his sword at his hip, the stillness of the night and Will by his side, Nico felt like he was back on the quest with Reyna. All he needed now was the blank marble eyes of the Athena Parthenos bearing down upon him like a thunderstorm.

The Blue team had kept their flag in a small clearing, actually quite close to the border but to the far West, an unexpected area for the target to be. Will and Nico’s mission was to find the Red’s flag, and if at all possible, attempt to retrieve it.

It was strange, how far they were into the Red’s territory, with no defensive foes in sight. They must’ve been getting close – the forest was only so big.

Will pressed against him as they walked.

“I was just thinking,” he said, “Considering this is Hermes territory, we should probably look out for-”

“ _Shit_.”

Anything Will was going to say was lost in a flurry of curses, limbs and sticks. The world turned upside down so hard that soon they were the right way up again, the canopy concealing the starlight.

“Fuck,” Will cursed.

Nico groaned – something had punched him hard in the stomach and was still wedged there. He couldn’t move his arms, something rough was constricting them like a snake and his heart was pounding in his chest. What the _hell_ had happened?

“I was going to say,” said Will, “that we should probably look out for traps.”

Nico cursed inwardly. Of _course_ there were going to be traps. They were dealing with the _Hermes_ Cabin.

The rough snakes around him were rope. They were caught in a net.

“Fuck,” Will said again.

He suddenly came to notice that the thing prodding in his stomach was in fact Will’s knee and that the aforementioned son of Apollo was currently draped over him like a limp puppet.

“You alright?” Will said. He shuffled around, trying to do Gods know what but all Nico could think about was the fact that Will Solace was on _top of him_. However, even that was eventually blocked out when Will’s knee pressed harder into his stomach and he literally couldn’t breathe. He was barely able to wheeze in response.

“Oh sorry,” Will said. He shuffled again, gracing Nico with the gift of air, but now Will’s damn face was right in front of him with that impish grin.

“Hey,” Will said. His eyebrows waggled annoyingly. Nico tried to think about something other than Will Solace. It was kind of hard – the boy was infuriating. His hips were pressing almost uncomfortable against Will’s, warm and bony and combined with the rope digging into his flesh it was almost painful.

“Get the _fuck_ off me Solace,” Nico growled, his fingers digging into the net.

“If I could, I would, Death Boy,” said Will. “But this net is barely big enough for one of us.”

Will’s hands were flat on his chest, the cool night breeze ruffling his hair. A deep flush ran up Nico’s face, colouring him scarlet.

“It looks like there’s a clasp up there,” Will said, looking above them. “I’ll see if I can get it loose.”

“And send us falling to the ground?”

Will looked down. “It’s not that high.”

Nico just continued to glare.

“It’s worth a try,” he replied. He lifted himself onto his knees, reaching over Nico to prod at the top of the net. In that position, Will’s chest was shoved into his face, centimetres from his nose. He stared at in shock, tried to look at anything but Will but everything was Will, from the pressure on his hips to the smell of Will’s deodorant.

“Solace, I swear to Zeus if you don’t stop it right now-”

“I’m only trying to get us out of here, Nico.”

He gave him a look as dark as a solar eclipse. Will sighed.

“Fine,” he groaned. He fell back down, knocking the breath out of Nico again. Nico had to resist cursing him with every word under the sun, and he would have if he could only catch his breath.

“Sorry.”

Nico just coughed.

“What do you propose we do, then? Cut ourselves out?”

Nico took a deep breath, his voice coming back to him. He hated everything about this whole situation.

“It’s Hermes we’re dealing with. It’ll be unbreakable,” Nico replied after a moment.

“So now what?”

“We wait for someone to get us.”

“Wow. You’re such a defeatist.”

“Shut up. There’s not a lot we could do.”

Will’s shoulders slumped and Nico _almost_ felt sorry for him.

“So,” Will said, resigned. “We’re out of the game.”

“Yep.”

“This sucks.”

“You certainly have the better end of the stick. I can barely breathe with your giant oaf of a body on me.”

“It’s not my fault you’re so small.”

“But why are you so big?”

“… Good point. I’ll have to ask Apollo where I get it from next time I see him. Oh wait. I won’t.”

Nico snorted.

Will regarded Nico with a hesitant look.

“So, uh,” Will said, “Did you want to flip over?”

“What?” Nico asked incredulously.

“Well we were just saying how I’m considerably larger than you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So I figured it would make sense if you were on top so I’m not like, crushing you.”

Nico blinked. “Okay.”

Will bit his lip. “Alright, so I’ll-”

“Yeah.”

They began moving, Will to the side and Nico lifting himself up. It was all going smoothly, Will nearly settled and Nico holding himself up with the rope like a monkey hanging from a tree. That is, until Nico’s foot slipped through a hole in the net and he was sent tumbling onto Will, his ankle twisting painfully, and only just managing to stop himself from crashing into Will. The result was Nico’s body centimetres from Will, his eyes barely an inch away. He was close enough to see the stars reflected in Will’s eyes but they hadn’t stolen his own sparkle. He could feel Will’s faint breath on his face. There was nothing physical between them but still something had worked its way into the cracks and crevices of the space, filling Nico’s head with a type of warmth he couldn’t describe.

Will opened his mouth to speak. The something disappeared as quick as a gust of wind, leaving a cold, vacuous hole. Nico cleared his throat. Will gave a quick, awkward smile and moved to sit back. Nico moved with him, rearranging himself so his body was parallel with Will’s, resulting in the larger boy cradling him awkwardly. Nico didn’t trust himself to look at Will - it was all so ridiculous he might snap at him.

“Well,” said Will, “That was an event in itself.”

“I hate you,” Nico said, his arms crossed.

“That’s lovely.”

Nico was apprehensive, to say the least.

It took all of thirty seconds for Will to say:

“I’m bored.”

“And I’m sick of being here but we all have to put up with unpleasant things,” said Nico.

“Ouch,” said Will, “That was harsh.”

“That’s me. Ask anyone,” said Nico bitterly.

“No one thinks that,” said Will.

“You just said it.”

“I was joking!” he protested.

Nico rolled his eyes, looking away. He didn’t want to think about that kind of stuff now. Silence fell between them.

“Tell me a story,” Will said. Nico turned back to look at him. He had that pleading look on his face like a puppy. “Please?”

Nico sighed. “Fine.”

He sat there for a moment, trying to think of something that wasn’t overly depressing. His thoughts kept on drifting to Tartarus but he knew he shouldn’t go there.

“Where’s the story?”

“Sh, lemme think.”

“One time,” started Nico, “After I had just met Hazel, I took her into Manhattan to show her the sights. We went around to the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building. It was exciting, for both of us – I never had much time to just hang out with someone, you know? Between both Camps and the Underworld, I was pretty much always on some errand. But we had some time together and we made the most of it. I still hadn’t known her well, not at all. But, she slowly warmed up to me. She looked comfortable. Not scared. At the end of the day, she gave me a hug. I didn’t – I didn’t know what to do. But it was… It was the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere since Bianca died.”

“And since then?”

“Hm?”

“Have you felt like you’ve belonged since then?”

Nico looked at his hands. After coming back from Tartarus, everything from eating to trusting people felt dangerous. After all the monsters, imprisonment and pain, it was like everything he had ever known had shrunk to just his own awareness of himself – anything else was a sinister mystery that eluded him no matter how hard he searched. It didn’t mean he hadn’t tried. He’d pushed and pulled through the darkness until Hazel had become a beacon of light in his shadow. Reyna had started working her way in, along with Jason. Maybe even Will would get there.

Just maybe.

Everyone always talked about how dark and depressing and creepy he was, and he supposed they were right. He was all those things. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have any light – he just only shared it with some with people. They gave him a place in the light.

“Yes,” said Nico, “I have.”

Nico looked back up at Will. He had a soft look on his face that Nico couldn’t interpret.

“I-”

“Oh my gods you guys how did you get up there?”

Nico jumped at the sudden intrusion. He squinted through the darkness and could barely make out two figures below them. The Athena campers.

Nico couldn’t remember their names, but they obviously knew who they were.

“I wish I had a camera oh my gods,” said the other camper, “Nico di Angelo and Will Solace caught in a net together.”

“Shut up, Oliver,” Will called down, “Just hurry up and get us out of here.”

“You guys couldn’t do it yourself?”

“…No.”

Nico heard a sigh. “Fine. Sit tight.”

“What else are we gonna do,” Nico muttered. Will muffled a laugh.

From what Nico could see, one of the Athena campers was climbing the tree they were hanging from, a knife between their teeth. He saw them hang from one of the branches, taking aim with the knife and then-

It all happened so fast that Nico didn’t have a chance to cry out. He landed on the ground with a dull thump, bumping his elbows into the dirt and his feet into something soft-

“Holy fuck!” Will shouted. Nico looked down to where his feet were planted in Will’s crotch. Nico watched, speechless and shocked as Will’s hands went to his face and cursed more.

“Oh my gods Will I’m so-”

“Just get off of me, holy fuck get off of me,” Will wheezed. Nico scrambled off of him, and Will immediately curled up on his side. The other Athena campers, a boy and a girl from what Nico could see, made their way over. Oliver was obviously trying to hold in a laugh.

“Holy shit Solace are you alive?”

“No,” Will wheezed, “I’m as good as dead. Leave me to die. Go on without me.”

“They might have to.”

Nico and the other campers whirled around, searching into the darkness for where the voice came from. The Stoll brothers stepped into view, daggers in their hands. Nico swallowed. Before he knew it, they were surrounded, Hermes campers closing them in on all sides. His fingers itched towards his sword, clasping the cool iron. He heard Will curse again and then he was up, a warm presence at Nico’s side.

“This’ll certainly be a story to tell,” said one of the Stoll brothers, “Red team loses because Will Solace got kicked in the nuts by Nico di Angelo.”

Nico flushed bright scarlet but was thankful for the fact that it was dark enough that no one could see.

“Shut it Stoll,” growled the girl.

“What are you gonna do about it? You’re out numbered ten to one,” taunted another Hermes camper.

That shut everyone up. There was a tense silence in the air, as thin as a fishing line. Nico couldn’t bear it any longer – he hated the anticipation of battle. It just allowed his mind to drift to the worst that could happen, so he might as well get it over with.

He broke away from the group, running full pelt at the Stoll brothers with his sword raised.

“Nico!” Will called out, but it was too late. The entire clearing fell into chaos as the Hermes campers bore down upon the Blue Team.

Nico launched himself at one of the Stolls, and swung his sword down onto his dagger, pushing with as much force as he could. It wasn’t the best strategy, considering that they had two years of growth spurts and training on him, but it was enough to catch them off guard and so he managed to push them back a step, away from the fight.

One of them was soon behind him and Nico swung around with the flat of his blade, smacking him in the side and he stumbled backwards.

“Travis!” said the other brother. Nico grinned inwardly; at least he knew which was which now.

He stepped back a pace, carefully watching the two brothers as they gathered themselves, concentrated sneers painted across their faces. They both were a foot taller than Nico, with defined muscles from years of training. With their advantage of stealth powers from their father, Nico had to think about how he was going to do this. They were quick but he had to be quicker… Somehow.

Nico charged forward, rushing with his sword up but he feinted to the side, ducking under the strike of the dagger that fell his way. He kicked Connor’s feet out from under him and drew the shadows in to push him, rolling away. Travis cast a glance to his brother before rushing to meet Nico, their blades clashing with a metallic twang. Travis wasn’t much of a sword-fighter, all things considered, but he knew how to use his dagger. He flicked his blade down so it was against Nico’s hilt locking it in place and pushed. It was now a matter of physical strength – who could push the other back.

Nico gritted his teeth, pitting all his weight against the larger boy, but it wasn’t much use; Nico’s flimsy arms just weren’t a match for Travis’s size. It all happened so fast – he fell back a step and Travis flicked his wrist; Nico’s blade flew from his grasp.

Travis pushed him in his momentary daze, sending him flat on his back. Before he could get to his feet, Travis’s foot connected with his stomach once, twice. All the breath rushed out of him as fast as a bolting horse and a fiery pain worked its way through his body. He couldn’t even cry out in protest, all he could do was wheeze. He instinctively curled up, tears coming to his eyes, keeping in a curse. He gasped his breaths, ignoring the fiery burn as air travelled around his throat.

Through his blurry vision he could see the battle dying down in front of him. Travis rushed to his brother and kneeled. Nico couldn’t see Will, but he hoped he was alright. He didn’t know how well he’d be able to defend himself after the accident. From what he could make out, Oliver was on his knees, the other girl beside him; Will probably there as well. The Red team seemed distracted, crowding around their captives and arguing over something avidly. Even the Stoll brothers were preoccupied – Travis fussing over Connor so much so that he didn’t notice Nico crawling to his knees.

Nico kept in a groan as he shuffled away, feeling around the forest floor for his sword. It was over at the edge of the clearing and he moved quickly to it, snatching it up and barely glancing back before sprinting into the forest. A pang of guilt stung in his chest, but he pushed it away. There was nothing he could do against so many members of the Red team – he could barely manage two Hermes brothers let alone a dozen from their cabin.

He figured the Hermes Cabin would take their captives to the jail. All Nico had to do was follow them through the forest and set them free.

Simple.

He just hoped that they would lower their guard when their captives were imprisoned.

From where he was, Nico could vaguely hear the voices of the Red team bickering as they walked through the forest.

“I swear to Hades there was another one,” said a voice.

“No,” said another, “You’re wrong. This is all they sent.”

“We shouldn’t go back to check?”

“Like I said,” said the voice, “There isn’t anymore, so why should we bother?”

Nico smirked to himself. Perfect. Sometimes there were advantages to being easily forgotten.

He followed their travelling voices, melting into the shadows as easily as going for a morning stroll. His footsteps barely made a sound as he followed. He kept them out of sight for fear that they might spot him first, but made sure to always be switched on to their position. He had to get Will out of there.

It wasn’t long until they approached a warm firelight, illuminating another small clearing. Nico couldn’t see a way he could get close to observe the scene, what with so much light around the place, so he wandered over to the nearest tree with low branches and hoisted himself up, climbing up and manoeuvring into the next tree until he could see into the clearing.

Will, Oliver and the other girl were standing in the centre of the clearing, four torches in each of the corners. The Stoll brothers talked with the three remaining guards and walked off towards the West where Nico could see-

The flag!

Nico grinned to himself. All he had to do was release the other members of his team, and the flag was as good as theirs.

He figured they must have been in the north-western corner of the forest, hidden behind a pile of boulders that had once housed a hippogriff. The flag wasn’t even that far from the boundary with how the creek curved.

The guards, three girls, circled their prisoners lazily, talking softly amongst themselves and rarely glancing to the outskirts. Will had sat down in the middle of the circle, his head in his hands. Nico just hoped he wasn’t hurt.

He wove his way through the tightly packed branches until he was directly above one of the girls. He closed his eyes, breathed in and counted to three. On three, he dropped straight down, landing behind the girl and pulling her down with him. He used his momentum to throw her and shove her away. She cried out and everyone in the clearing turned towards him at once. He froze like a criminal in a spotlight.

“Hi,” he said slowly. The two guards continued to approach.

“Nico!” Will called out, climbing to his feet. Nico’s other hand made a small movement in a wave.

The two guards circled him cautiously, like predator circling prey; his eyes followed them slowly. He lost focus on Will and the other two; he could only concentrate on the imminent threat before his eyes.

The girl in front of him ran forward, swinging her sword at his head but he parried it away, dodging to the side. The other girl met his blade as he avoided the last attack and he pushed back, sending her stumbling. He swung around with his sword, meeting the first girl with a metallic clang and they thrust and parried back and forth, Nico falling backwards a couple of steps.

The girl came down with one final swing, meeting his sword at the hilt. With one fluid flick of the wrist, his sword was twisted from his grasp and flung into the shadows. Nico froze, wide-eyed, and kept his stare straight on the girl in front of him. In his peripherals he could see the other two guards gathering themselves and moving to surround him again.

He swallowed.

Nico ran at the girl in front of him, which probably wasn’t the wisest move, considering he was unarmed and she had a longsword. Before he had the chance to impale himself however, she tossed her sword a size and grabbed his fist out of the air as easily as catching a ball. He tried pushing against her, but it was no use – his strength was nothing compared to hers.

She squeezed his hand sharply and Nico cried out, falling to his knees. He saw Will move to run forward but Oliver held him back – he couldn’t intervene while he was in jail otherwise the Blue team was forfeit.

The guard restraining him wrenched his arm back at a painful angle, moving it behind his back and forcing his head down. Nico felt a sharp sheet of pain ride its way up his wrist and he shouted in protest. His chest was heaving and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. How was he going to get out of this?

He closed his eyes and counted to five, focusing on the buzzing feeling at his finger tips that he hadn’t tapped into for days. He smirked. He could feel the shadows reaching out to him, itching at the edge of his senses. He breathed in sharply and then it was all over.

The four torches blew out and the pressure was gone from his back. The guard was whisked away from behind him by the darkness. The other two guards cried out as the shadows slashed at them, pushing them away from the clearing and into the forest.

They wouldn’t be bothered by them anytime soon.

Nico slumped forward, catching himself on his restrained wrist. The fiery pain was there again, like the flashing of a warning light, and he cried out again, cursing himself. He’d faced worse than this. He leant back, holding his wrist in his hand and closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the dizziness.

He could hear movement in front of him and voices and suddenly he could make out Will on his knees in front of him.

“Oh my gods are you okay?”

Nico just nodded, hoping Will could see him through the dark.

“So,” came the girl’s voice, “We’re free, right?”

“Amy, I think so,” said Oliver, “But now what? It’s pitch black and I have no clue where the flag is.”

“It’s over there,” Nico mumbled, keeping his voice low, “Over towards the rocks.”

“Did you hear that?” Will said, turning to look at them. “The flag’s over there. Go!” Will pointed. The pair took a moment to look at Will and Nico before racing off.

“Are they going to be okay?”

“They’re gonna be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. Why’d you use your powers?”

“I had to save you,” Nico said quietly.

Will went silent for a moment. “… Not if it meant you’re in trouble. But… thanks,” he replied.

“No problem,” said Nico, “But I’m fine. I think it’s my wrist. She really did a number on it.”

“Hm,” Will said, taking Nico’s hand. Nico instantly flinched at the contact and hissed at the pain.

“I take it that’s an ‘ow that hurts’ rather than a ‘shit someone’s touching me?”

Nico hurriedly nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. Will prodded gently against his wrist again.

“Fuck! Stop that, will you.”

“Will I what?”

“Fuck off.”

“I was just checking if it’s broken,” Will replied, “But no, I think you’ve just sprained it.”

“So I’m out of the game?”

“I think you’re out of the game,” Will confirmed, “But you did great. Really, you did.”

Nico was glad it was dark for the blush that flushed his cheeks.

A shout was heard in the direction of the flag. Nico and Will’s heads flicked around.

“Do you think they’re alright?” Nico asked.

“I think so,” said Will, rising to his feet, “But let’s go check it out just in case. Can you stand?”

“Solace, I swear to Hades I’m fine,” Nico bit. Will stepped back as Nico climbed to his feet.

Regardless to what he had said, his head spun but he managed to stay in one place, focusing on one tree in the distance to steady himself. After a moment, he blinked, ignored Will’s concerned look, and made his way through the clearing towards the sound, cradling his wrist.

They crept through the forest quietly, keeping their distance from the growing cacophony of noise. It was moving quickly and soon they were running to keep up with it, Nico keeping his wrist close to his chest. It wasn’t long before Nico figured that either Oliver or Amy must’ve had the flag as they were racing towards the boundary line.

They burst through the foliage onto the creek-bed just in time to see Amy take a flying leap over the body of water into Blue territory with the Red flag in her grasp.

The blue team cheered. Will smiled like a thousand stars.

~

“I’ve decided,” Will said, bandaging up his wrist. “That I’m going to go back home for the school year.”

They were back at the infirmary, sitting at the desk while Will repaired his wrist. No one else had been seriously hurt during the game, but Nico was glad that the extent of his injuries meant that he just couldn’t bend his wrist for a couple of days.

Nico blinked. “What?”

“I’ve talked it over with Mum, and she thinks I should give it another shot,” said Will, “I didn’t go last year – there was all the stuff with the war and on top of my anxiety and ADHD I just didn’t think I would cope. So I dropped out.”

Nico hadn’t known this. Even after all their talks, Will had barely mentioned anything about school.

“Mum thinks I’ll be able to catch up in no time,” Will said, smiling to himself. “Given how clever I am.”

“You sure are.”

That earned him a smile.

“So,” said Will, sighing. “I’ve got a month. A month until I go back to the mortal world and pretend I’m a normal kid and that none of this.” He made a wide gesture to the infirmary patients. “Ever happened.”

And just like that, Nico’s world broke. He had never even thought about that – what would happen after the summer was over and all the demigods with families would go back home. He hadn’t put a single thought into when _this_ , this moment with Will, would be over.

They had a month. A month and Nico would be back to where he had started – alone. Lost. Wishing for something he could never have.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of ended up giving up on this chapter. It really didn't turn out to what I wanted it be (you can probably see that in how poor the fight scenes are, the lack of emotional impact and physical chemistry but anyways), which is part of the reason why it took so long to upload.
> 
> The good news is, I really like the next chapter! So, it might not be too long between this one and the next. The other piece of good news is that I have my final grade twelve exam tomorrow, so I'll be able to spend more time on writing. (Get ready for fics just you wait, tho it might be more than just Percy Jackson)
> 
> Thanks to all the commenters and kudo-clickers. See you next time!
> 
> \- Will


	12. I can’t explain the state that I’m in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst

Nico wandered up the breakfast pavilion, keeping his head down and trying not to look conspicuous. He would have stayed in his cabin if it weren’t for the fact that Will would probably come knock on his door anyway. Might as well get this over and done with.

Will sidled up to him, a grin painted across his face as bright as a daisy, like he wouldn’t be leaving in thirty short days.

Nico didn’t know why he was so hung up about it – it had kept him up half the night, after all. Will was just… a boy. Who was nice to him. And looked after him. And wasn’t creeped out by him. It was unusual, to say the least.

“Morning!” Will grinned.

Nico grunted, his hands shoved in his pockets. Will nudged his shoulder gently.

“Haven’t seen you around here at this time of day in a while. What’s up?”

He wanted to say, _your dumb face_ , but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Too far. It was the truth though; the only reason he was going to the dining pavilion this early in the morning instead of catching up on the sleep he missed was because he didn’t want to miss any time with Will. There was a timer ticking inside his chest and when it stopped, Will was going to leave and all he would be left with was empty alarms reminding him something was supposed to happen. He just didn’t know what. He didn’t even know why the timer was there in the first place.

Nico kept all this to himself and just decided a grunt would be satisfactory.

“You’re certainly talkative today,” Will said, “Did you sleep alright?”

Nico kept in a sigh. He really didn’t feel like talking, but considering Will wasn’t letting up, he didn’t really have a choice.

Before he could answer, however, Will butted in. “I take that as a no.” He swung round so that he was walking backwards, staring Nico in the face. “What’s wrong? Nightmares?”

Nico froze. Will was getting too close to home this early in the morning. Fuck his stupid face.

“Nico?”

Nico spun on his heel and started striding back the way he had come, not daring to move his eyes off the ground ahead. He had to get out of there. He didn’t know what had set him off but his heart was racing like a steeplechase and his breathing echoed through his head. The morning was suddenly toomuchtooquicktooloud and he had to get out of there. Will called after him.

~

By the time he had calmed down, he found himself gravitating towards the sound, where him and Will had had the picnic the other day. He collapsed onto the ground, drawing his knees in close and pressing his head against his legs. His heart still pounded in his chest, but his breathing was manageable.

He cursed at himself for being so childish. All Will had done was ask a simple question about his wellbeing. It wasn’t the end of the world.

 _But it just felt so wrong_.

Will was leaving. At the end of the month, Will would be whisked away to the mortal world, back to a loving mortal home and family and friends and school and everything Nico could never have. Nico knew, deep down, that Will wasn’t leaving _him_ specifically, but it felt like such a punch in the gut, that the son of Apollo was leaving just as Nico was settling into him. It was like he had decided to vacate the premises just after Nico had moved in and started setting up the furniture – all of Will’s touches would be gone, leaving Nico with an empty house and only his thoughts to decorate with.

He cursed himself. He hated it. He didn’t want to give Will another thought. Why should he care that Will was leaving? It was just another demigod who along the way decided they had better things to do than try to befriend the son of Hades.

Most kids at camp never bothered to look at him, let alone talk to him, but Will just seemed so comfortable kicking up a conversation and laughing for days at something Nico had said. It was like he took the ‘creepy’ and ‘disgusting’ that most people labelled him as and turned it around to ‘fun’ and ‘likeable’. He took it so far that he was concerned about Nico’s _safety_ , his health and his happiness. It was wrong. Wrong because no one outside of Hazel had asked about those things since… Since Bianca had died.

People weren’t supposed to care about him. People were supposed to cast him aside and not give him a minute of their time because that was how it worked with children of Hades.

He cursed himself again.

He had to remind himself of Reyna, of Jason. They looked out for him, checked up on him.

But that still didn’t make sense.

_Why did people care?_

They shouldn’t. That was the fact of the matter. He didn’t deserve any of this… this love, that was directed towards him.

But that still didn’t change that he did care about Will. He wanted to be friends with him, even, because for once someone had pushed back the dark, even if it was just a little. He still hated it though. He hated how he cared about Will. He hated how Will’s grin could make him smile, even laugh. He hated that for once, someone’s touch could be comforting instead of destructive.

Nico closed his eyes and took a deep breath, counting down from ten. He needed to stop, to calm down. Take a moment to ground himself in his own truth.

~

Nico ended up wandering back to the Hades Cabin, but when the gloom became as overbearing as a waterfall, he snatched up his sketching materials and went back to the sound. He liked it there – it was far enough away from the camp that there wasn’t any sound of over-excited chattering children to push him to the edge and nobody’s eyes were pressing into him and asking him of anything.

He needed to distract himself and take a break. So, he sketched. He didn’t really know what it was; really it was just a dark mass of different shades but he soon worked out that it was the currents of the Sound, swirling around in chaotic harmony.

It calmed him to do something with his hands, but he was still filled with a maelstrom of worries that didn’t know when to quit. He became absorbed in his work and ignored the passage of time until there was a voice behind him.

“Nico?”

Nico jumped, dropping his sketchbook in an overly extravagant movement.

Will.

Nico avoided his gaze. He felt guilty for just running off like that but he still didn’t feel ready to confront Will about it.

His shoulders hunched up into an awkward position and he already could feel his heart beginning to race again. His hands shook as he went to pick up the sketch book.

Will beat him to it, picking it up and sitting beside Nico on the grass.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” said Will, “Are you alright?”

Nico pulled his hands close to his body, trying to stop himself from curling up but his spine instinctively hunched over. It was becoming toomuchtooloudtoo-

“Nico?” Will questioned again.

He swallowed, ignoring the fire in his chest. “I-” he started, “I’m sorry I ran off like that.”

Will looked at the ground. “It’s fine. I was just worried, is all. Are you okay though? You’ve been gone all day.”

“I just had a bit of a freak out, is all.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

_No._

“Maybe,” he said, “I don’t know.”

Will smiled softly. “It’s okay. Whenever you’re ready.”

Nico’s fists clenched, an anger bubbled up in his chest as sudden and as tense as a wild cat.

“Why are you like that?” he demanded. He turned to look at Will, for the first time meeting his eyes with intention. It all came pouring out in one massive roar.

“Why are you so patient? Why do you listen to me? Why do you drag me places? Why do you want me to eat? Why do you want to know how I slept, or if I’m okay? Why does it matter to you? _Why do you care?_ ”

Will looked at him, eyes wides and mouth open.

“Why do I-” He started, “Why do I care?”

Nico’s breath heaved in his chest, pushing his own body back like a tidal wave. This was the part where Will would deny it, push him away and claim that he didn’t care. He would finally have had enough of Nico’s utter _bullshit_ and leave him alone, how he should be.

“Nico,” his voice as gentle as a summer’s breeze, “I care because I’m your friend.”

Nico broke his gaze away, instead choosing to stare down the sound. Solace hadn’t just said that. He felt his glass breaking and his fire consuming him.

“But why?” his voice cracked, like a shattering glass.

“Does there have to be a reason? I want to be your friend because I care. I care because I’m your friend. There’s no underlying reason. It’s not some cryptic puzzle you have to solve. It’s just how it is.”

Nico ran a hurried hand through his hair, tugging out the knots. He still didn’t believe it. It didn’t make sense. But like Will had said, did it have to? The only problem was it just made Will leaving that much more painful.

“I don’t want you to go,” he mumbled. There. He had said it.

There was a thick silence, as heavy and as dense as sand. Will took a breath.

“That’s okay,” said Will, “But I’m still going to. I have a life outside of Camp Half-Blood, but that doesn’t mean that this place isn’t a massive part of it. Just because I’m going away doesn’t mean that _this_ will be over. We’ll still be friends; we can keep in contact. Iris messaging is a thing. I’m going to be back next summer and it’ll be great. I’m not leaving you, Nico, I’m just moving my life forward, and I’m going to take you with me.”

Nico let it sink in. They would keep in contact over the year. Will would be back. They were friends and they still would be friends afterwards. This wasn’t the end of anything, it was just a slight intermission to continue onto the next act of their friendship.

Nico swallowed, ignoring the tear that fell down his cheek. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

In his peripherals he could see Will giving him a smile. “Thank you for trusting me with that,” he said. He paused. “Did you want to know what I have planned for the rest of the evening?”

There was a shining glint in his eye that Nico couldn’t say no to.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So originally, this chapter was going to be combined with the next one, but i felt that it was just getting too long. So, you get the angst in this chapter and the fun times in the next.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> \- Will


	13. The state of my heart, he was my best friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> McDonalds, Secrets, and Fun Times

Nico couldn’t believe he was doing this.

He was with Will and four other campers; Sammy, Kayla, Tish, and Ben, walking towards the outskirts of camp, keeping to the shadows.

“What the fuck are we doing again?” He whispered.

“Sh,” hushed Ben, “Or you’ll get us caught.”

Nico rolled his eyes. Will had briefly mentioned something about ‘adventure’, ‘sneaking out’ and ‘McDonalds’ but Nico had been too caught up in himself to fully pay attention. They completely avoided the sleeping dragon around Thalia’s tree and made their way down the hill. As soon as they crossed the boundary, the temperature rose by about 5 degrees and Nico was suddenly regretting wearing a jacket. That didn’t mean he was going to take it off.

They crept down, past the sign that read ‘Delphi Strawberry Service’ and stopped at the side of the road, where a payphone was.

Kayla walked up to it, slipping a few coins in and dialling a number, Sammy looking over her shoulder as she tried to figure out what the numbers were.

“It’ll only be a five-minute ride to the nearest McDonalds, so it shouldn’t cost much,” Will said softly.

“I don’t have any money anyways, sorry,” said Nico.

“No worries,” said Will, “I’ll shout you. I’ve got less than a month till I leave, so I’ll be right with my allowance.”

A month.

“Thanks,” Nico said, scuffing his feet on the ground. He was feeling better than earlier, but just the littlest bit drained so he let Will babble on about his day in the infirmary. After their talk on the sound, Nico had absentmindedly followed Will to the infirmary and half-dozed, half-drew the afternoon away until Will had dragged him to where they were now.

Apparently to break Camp rules by crossing the boundary without permission, at night, to catch a taxi to the nearest McDonalds.

Such fun.

“So,” said Will, nudging Nico gently, “What’s your favourite colour?”

“My favourite colour?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because all you wear is black and if that’s not the biggest indicator I’ve ever seen I don’t know what my name is. I’m waiting for you to prove me wrong.”

Nico smiled. “My favourite colour’s green.”

“Green?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Oh my gods,” said Nico, “Just because it is. I don’t know. It’s pretty.”

Will nudged him again, smirking. “Nico di Angelo likes green because it’s pretty. You heard it first here.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I know.”

Nico took a moment think. Should he-

“What’s your favourite colour?” he asked. Will was immediately ready.

“I’m so glad you asked,” he replied, “ _My_ favourite colour is yellow. Now, you might say, ‘Wow Will how could you be anymore obvious’, but no. My favourite colour is not yellow because of the sun. My favourite colour is yellow because you know what else is yellow? Fucking pasta. And you know what’s my favourite food? Pasta. Because I’m a good person.”

Nico blinked. “I never thought you’d be so passionate about your favourite colour,” Nico said flatly.

“Says the boy all in black.”

“We just discussed this. My favourite colour is green.”

“Because it’s pretty. What a great reason,” he said plainly, “My reason’s better.”

Nico sighed. “If you insist.”

“I do insist.”

“If you guys are done,” interrupted Ben, “The taxi’s here.”

The taxi had pulled up on the side of the road and Ben was holding the door open as the girls piled in.

“Come on,” said Will, “Time to fill ourselves up with junk.”

~

After some quarrelling with the taxi driver, they managed to fit all six of them in the taxi cab, insisting that Nico ‘really was that small’ and that he could sit on someone’s lap. So that left Nico, squashed up against the side of the taxi with his legs draped over Will’s and cursing the taxi driver every time they stopped at an orange light.

The Apollo kids chattered amongst themselves quietly, talking mostly about music but Will and Kayla inevitably ended up in a discussion about some sort of surgery that Nico could only half understand. Every now and then Will would turn to him with his eyebrows raised, as if asking if he needed anything and all Nico would need to do was give a slight nod of reassurance and Will was back in the conversation.

“So,” said Ben, leaning forward so he could see Nico. “Nico. What are the dead like?”

“Ben!”

“What? It’s not like it’s every day I get to talk to someone who talks to dead people.”

Nico shrugged with a little smile. “They’re more interesting to talk to than you.”

A chorus of ‘Oh!’ ran around the cab and Will nudged him. Ben had a sheepish smirk on his face.

“Good one, Nico,” said Sammy.

“Okay,” said Ben, recovering quickly. “But are you going to answer the question?”

“No.”

Silence.

“Anyways,” said Will, breaking the quiet, “Let’s do something else. Any ideas?”

“Oh!” said Kayla, “Truth or Dare!”

“Kayla, we’ve done that the last five times we’ve snuck out.”

“Not with Nico,” she said. Tish rolled her eyes.

“Fine, then,” Tish said, “But I’m not going first.”

“Alright then,” said Kayla, “Will, truth or dare?”

Will smirked to Nico like they had some sort of inside joke. “Truth,” he said simply.

“How many people have you kissed?”

“We’re getting right to it, aren’t we?” he said, “Um, lemme think.” He looked down at his fingers, mentally counting on them. “Six,” he decided.

Nico looked away. He shouldn’t be bothered by that. Will could kiss whoever he damned well pleased.

Kayla whistled. “Bit more of a player than I thought you were.”

“Kayla have you even seen him at parties?” Sammy said.

“Yeah,” said Will, “Have you seen me at parties?” He paused. “What have you seen of me at parties?”

“Not much, you’re always off in some corner snogging someone,” said Ben. Will snorted and Nico just kept on avoiding looking at him.

“Okay,” said Will, “Sammy, Truth or Dare?”

“Truth, duh. What dares can you think of in a car?”

Will smirked. “A few.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Guys, just get back to the question,” insisted Tish. Sammy rolled her eyes.

“We haven’t even gotten to the question,” said Sammy, “Come on Will.”

“Who do you have a crush on?”

Everyone groaned.  “Will you always ask the lame ones.”

“So? We don’t know who Sammy likes. It’s a valid question.”

“It’s me,” said Tish, leaning in from the front seat, “Obviously.”

“Stop it, Tish,” said Sammy, “I like a girl back home, in Kansas.”

A girl. Sammy liked a girl. She was gay. As in, Sammy wanted to have romantic relations with a member of the same gender. Nico realised he hadn’t actually met another gay person before, let alone someone who was so casual about it.

“Of course you do” said Tish, “And her name is Dorothy.”

“It is, actually.”

“Of fuck off, it is not.”

“Is too.”

“How old are you two?” Kayla intervened, “Sammy’s answered the question, move on.”

“She likes a girl from Kansas called Dorothy, for fuck’s sake. She’s lying through her teeth.”

“Shut it,” said Sammy, red rising to her face and abruptly turning away from Tish. She ended up staring a Nico instead. “Nico, truth or dare?”

Nico froze as a million possibilities ran through his head. Normally he would have immediately said ‘dare’, but considering that they were in a confined space, let alone moving taxi, he didn’t fancy doing one. On the other hand, what truths would they get out of him? Still, it was a light prospect than the dare.

“Truth,” he said after a moment, ignoring the way his heart beat in anticipation.

Sammy smirked. “Hm,” she said, “What can we get out of the mysterious son of Hades?”

Nico’s fingers tightened on his jeans. They were going to ask him. The had asked Sammy so easily, like they expected it from him and he didn’t want to tell. Not yet when he-

“Where’re you from?”

Nico blinked. That wasn’t what he had been expecting.

“Um,” he said, “Italy.”

“Yeah, we all know that,” said Sammy, “The name kind of gives it away. But _where_ in Italy?”

The thing was, Nico didn’t know. The River Lethe had wiped most of his young memories, and had left him with a paint splash of a childhood. Or course, he remembered bits and pieces; how to speak Italian, his mother’s face – but anything more was kept out of his light.

 _Make something up then_.

He said the first Italian city that came into his head.

“Venice,” he said.

“Like,” said Ben, “The one with the boats?”

“No, the one with all the volcanoes,” said Will, “The other Italian city called Venice. Obviously.”

Nico snorted. “The one with the boats,” he confirmed.

“So you know how to sail and stuff?”

He didn’t.

“Of course.”

“No wonder you’re best friends with Percy Jackson; he loves boats.”

Nico froze. Is that what people thought?

Even here, among the four Apollo kids, he couldn’t escape the Son of Poseidon’s reach. He had spent a third of his teen years loathing Percy’s face, another desperately trying to gain his approval and the last just wanting to be done with it all. Why was it one extreme or the other? He had barely come to terms in his own head with the fact that he didn’t have to be his enemy _or_ his boyfriend. Couldn’t he just be his friend? A person he knew?

“He’s not my best friend,” Nico grumbled, looking away.

“Really? I would have thought with the way you follow him-”

“ **He isn’t**.” The night somehow grew darker.

“But-”

“Drop it, Ben,” said Will, a harshness in his voice Nico hadn’t heard before.

Ben rolled his eyes grumpily. “I don’t know why you guys are all ganging up on me. I’m just playing the game.”

Everyone ignored him.

Nico shot Will a grateful look.

“Moving on,” said Kayla, “Nico?”

Will smiled back softly.

“Nico?”

He dragged his face away from Will’s.

“Hm?”

“It’s your turn to ask someone.”

“Oh,” he said, picking the only other person he knew well in the cab. “Will, truth or dare?”

“No fair!” Ben protested, “He’s already had a turn.”

“Nobody asked you, Ben,” said Tish.

“That’s the whole point.”

Kayla sighed. “Guys?” she said desperately.

“Sorry Kayla,” Tish and Ben muttered, echoing each other.

Will turned to Nico expectantly. “Truth,” he said simply.

Nico bit his lip, thinking for a second. He definitely wasn’t good at this game.

“When’s your birthday?”

“What a step down,” said Sammy, “C’mon Nico, ramp it up a bit.”

“July seven,” said Will, not missing a beat.

“Great.”

“I like to think so.”

“Alright, break it up you too,” said Tish, clapping her hands between them. “Will, please try to come up with something more exciting.”

The game continued, barely keeping the interest of the group as they drove. By the time they pulled up to the McDonalds, Ben was trying to fulfil his dare of not blinking for two minutes (amidst groans of complaint) and Will and Nico were the only ones left participating. Tish and Sammy wandered in ahead of them, Kayla walking by Ben’s side in mock comfort.

“So,” said Nico as they walked into the shop, “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” said Will.

“Finally,” he said, “I was beginning to run out of ideas.”

“Well go on then, give me some fresh ones.”

Nico considered his plans for the moment. He wanted something mildly amusing for the group to watch, but nothing that would embarrass Will or the staff of McDonalds.

“I dare you to get the cashiers number,” said Nico.

“Nico di Angelo,” said Will, “I like how you think.”

Luckily, the girl serving them was around their age and so his prospects were remarkably improved just by that. Will sidled up to the counter, leaning one elbow on the bench and giving the girl that lovely grin of his. As she was taking down his order, a smile ran across her face in almost an amused manor, but good-natured to say the least. Nico watched, aghast, as all Will had to do was tilt his head in _just_ the right way and the cashier was pulling out a pen and writing something on the back of his receipt. By that point their order had been put on the bench and Will gave her one last charismatic grin and wandered back to Nico with two McFlurries.

“There you go, Death Boy,” said Will, passing him the receipt. “One cashier’s number, just for you.”

Nico blinked. He didn’t think it would be that easy. “How did you-”

“Have you seen my face?” And he was grinning _that_ grin again, filled with a light as bright as the sun and all Nico could do was blush under his gaze.

“See, not even you can resist my charm,” he said, “Where should we sit?” He dug his spoon into his ice cream and shoved it into his mouth, keeping the spoon there.

Inside, Ben and Kayla were sitting quietly over their food, talking quietly and involved. Tish and Sammy were nowhere to be seen.

“It’s cooler outside than it is in here, how about we sit out there?” Nico said, jerking his head towards the door.

“Mhm,” Will mumbled around his spoon. Nico stood, staring warily at his McFlurry. He hadn’t eaten much today. His stomach growled. Before Will could say anything, Nico spooned a scoop into his mouth.

He followed Will outside into the cooler air, where a cool summer’s breeze was blowing.

“Where’re Sammy and Tish?” Nico asked, looking around.

“Kind of busy, by the looks of it,” said Will, gesturing to the left with his eyebrows.

Nico looked to where Will was looking and quickly looked away. Currently, Sammy had Tish pinned up against the wall, their lips locked and hands wandering over each other.

Will smirked at him. “It’s about time,” said Will, “Sammy’s been pining after Tish for _ages_. It was getting kind of pathetic.”

He looked down at Nico. “C’mon, let’s go somewhere else. I have an idea.”

Will led Nico away to the other side of the building. The McDonalds was located just at the edges of an urban area, surrounded by small blocks of flats. Will took Nico to the side of one, looking up at the fire escape with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Hold this,” he said, handing Nico his ice cream. Nico took it, both excited and dreading what Will was going to do next.

Will jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the emergency ladder, hanging from it with his legs swaying. His shirt rode up and Nico could see his stomach muscles. He quickly looked at his arms instead, but he didn’t find any escape there either – Will’s arms were straining with the effort. Will finally pulled the ladder down, grunting with the effort. The ladder fell with a shink and Nico briefly worried about someone hearing them, but the thought flitted away when Will flicked his hair out of his face.

“Thanks,” said Will, taking the ice cream from him. Nico looked away. Why was he thinking about Will’s jawline and how it curved up to his ear and the way his-

“C’mon up.” Will broke him out of his thoughts.

Will began climbing up the fire escape, manoeuvring up with one hand with such a sense of ease, he had to have done it before.

Nico followed up at a slightly slower pace, but he quickly got the hang of it and soon was right behind Will.

“So,” said Will as they climbed, “Truth or Dare?”

“We’re still doing this?”

“Truth or Dare is never over,” said Will.

“Alright then,” said Nico, “Dare.”

Will answered without missing a beat. “I dare you to finish that ice cream.” He sent Nico a wide, sneaky grin.

“That’s not fair.”

“It’s the rules of the game. You have to do it now.”

“But what if I’m sick?”

“Nico di Angelo,” said Will, “I’m a son of Apollo. I can tell when you’re sick and the only sick you are at the moment is sick from the shadowy-death stuff. So, eat that ice cream.”

Nico sighed. “Fine.”

They had reached the last stop of the fire escape, just below the roof. Nico took one look at it and knew it was too high for him to reach. Will stretched up and placed his ice cream on the roof, where he could just reach and pulled himself up after it. He disappeared briefly as he adjusted himself, but his face was soon looking back down from the ledge.

“What are you waiting for?”

Nico rolled his eyes.

“You see,” said Nico, “I am small. And you’re considerably larger than me.” To emphasise the gap, Nico reached up towards the roof to show the two feet of space between his hands and the edge. Will laughed down at him.

“Gods, I never really think about how small you are.”

“Shut up, Solace.”

“You just said – Nevermind. C’mon, I’ll help you up.” Will leaned down, held out his hand and Nico gave him his ice cream. A second later, the hand was back, reaching out to him.

Nico hesitated. “You sure you can lift me?”

“Nico, you weigh 90 pounds soaking wet.”

“I could have gained weight in the last week.”

“Somehow, I don’t think so. Just give me your hand,” said Will, exasperated.

Nico held his arms up again and Will grabbed him by his wrists, pulling him up gently. Nico landed softly on the edge of the roof, which had a ridge running around the outside that was about a foot higher, leaving him about the same height as Will.

He smiled shyly down at Will. His arms were still around him.

Will mumbled something.

“Hm?”

“Oh, nothing. Come on, our McFlurry’s will melt.”

Will moved to the other side of the roof, sitting down so that he was looking out over the city and his legs were dangling down. Nico moved next to him, looking to the skyline. They were far enough away from the city that the stars were just peeking through the clouds, tiny pin pricks in the midnight sky. The city, however, was a much brighter prospect, but it couldn’t beat the way Will looked at him.

“So,” said Nico, settling into his spot. “Truth or Dare?”

“We’ll go truth,” said Will.

“Okay,” said Nico, staring at his ice cream. “How are you?”

“We’re doing this, are we?”

“We are.”

“You sneaky bastard,” said Will, “Alright. I’m… Better. The past few days, getting out of the infirmary, hanging with _you_ , I’m feeling… lighter. The infirmary was getting too me, but once I stepped out, and I could do more than just medicine, I felt good. It helped me with the whole ‘why do I have to be one thing’ thing. Playing Capture the Flag, teaching archery – they’re things I can do. It’s nice to be able to do something different.”

Will paused, taking a bite of his ice cream.

“What about you?”

 _Tell him_. _Tell him how you can’t sleep at night for all the dreams, the way food stares at you like you’re the meal and how-_

“I’m alright,” said Nico, “Just tired.” He sent Will a soft smile. “A bit beaten down from this morning, but other than that, I’m getting there.”

Will looked at him and in the moment Nico knew that he _knew_. He could tell Nico was lying. He expected him to say something, but he just moved right back into action.

“Truth or dare?”

“What? You just asked a question.”

“But I didn’t say Truth or Dare, did I? I technically haven’t had my turn,” said Will, smirking.

“I hate you.”

“Is that your truth?”

Nico gave him a look. “Fine,” he said, “Truth.”

“Tell me something about yourself that you haven’t told me,” Will said.

 _Tell him_.

**No.**

“Okay,” said Nico. He would tell him something else. “But you have to be ready for this, it’s pretty weird.”

“Uh-huh,” said Will, “Go on.”

“Like, really,” said Nico, “Really weird.”

“We’re demigods, how weird can you get?”

“Okay,” said Nico. He paused, figuring out the best way to say it.

“C’mon man, I’m on the edge of my-”

“I was born in 1932.”

Will blinked. And tilted his head.

“You don’t look eighty years old.”

“That’s because I didn’t _live_ the eighty years – Well, I did, but I didn’t-”

“Nico,” said Will, “What the fuck?”

“I just-” Nico took a deep breath. And he told the story.

Of the pact, his mother dying, Hades putting them in the Lotus Casino, and then the Westover Hall, where Percy Jackson, the hero from his favourite card game, rescued him and his sister. He stopped at Bianca’s death, leaving the story hanging on the edge of the precipice where young Nico was caught in a maelstrom of hate and loneliness and confusion. Nico wanted to go further; he practically wanted to tell his whole life story at this point, but he felt as if he’d already said too much. Just the fact that he was born in the 1930s would freak Will out enough – anything else might send him running.

Will was silent and Nico was dying for him to say something. He couldn’t read Will’s face – for once it was empty, lightless, like he was deep in thought. Nico looked away. Silence wasn’t good. Silence was running away. Silence was hatred. Silence was everything Nico feared.

“Okay,” said Will, shrugging his shoulders. “You were born in the 1930s, but cos of some weird shit with the Gods, you’re still like 15 – wait… How do you know you’re fifteen? How do you know how fast you aged in the Casino? Or if you aged at all?”

“I- I don’t,” said Nico, “We just kind of guessed.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

“Cool,” said Will, “It’s no big deal. I mean, it explains a few things, but really? Meh. Another fucked up demigod sob story.”

Nico blinked. “You’re not freaked out?”

“Are you?”

Nico considered this. “Sometimes,” he said, “Microwaves are pretty intimidating.”

“You’re scared of microwaves.”

“No! I don’t understand them, there’s a difference. How do they work?”

“Nico di Angelo, the son of the God of the Underworld, is scared of microwaves.”

Nico glowered. “No,” he said, “I am not. I just don’t get them.”

Will snorted.

“You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”

“What,” said Will, “That you’re scared of microwaves or that your life is pretty messed?”

“Will,” Nico said sharply.

Will rolled his eyes. “Of course not,” he said, “Your secret’s safe with me.” He nudged Nico gently and this time, Nico didn’t pull back.

“But you’ve given me a _fantastic_ idea,” said Will.

~

The taxi ride home back to camp was immensely uneventful compared to the one to McDonalds. Ben was left in the front seat this time, leaving Sammy room to doze on Tish’s shoulder and Kayla to stare out the window. Will was quietly telling Nico stories about his younger siblings and the trouble they got into, but all Nico could think about was the way Sammy so easily had her head on Tish’s shoulder, how it looked so nice, so safe. Will’s hair burnt orange in the traffic lights. His voice soothed him like the sound of ocean waves. He was safe.

~

That didn’t last for long.

The taxi dropped them off at the borders of Camp Half Blood, just as the clock chimed midnight. They were as quiet as they could be, sneaking up the hill, but as soon as they reached Thalia’s Pine, a gruff voice echoed around them.

“And where have you been?”

 _Sorry Chiron_ ran its way around the group almost instantly. Nico remained silent.

“Will Solace,” said Chiron, “I expected better from you. A head councillor running out of camp in the middle of the night? It’s unheard of.”

Will looked away, not daring to meet Chiron’s eyes.

“It’s late,” Chiron sighed, “We’ll discuss your punishment in the morning. Off to bed with you all.”

With that, Chiron galloped back to the Big House and the Children of Apollo wandered off towards their cabin, talking quietly. Will lagged behind.

“Nico?”

“Hm?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be.”

Will smiled.

Nico was left with a warmth in his chest that carried him through the night.

~

The punishment turned out to be less horrendous than Nico had expected. He yawned and speared the hay, shovelling it into the wheelbarrow.

Even though the last night had left him happy and content, he still hadn’t slept well, tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning with the single thought of _Will, Will, Will_. He had, however, eaten breakfast and the daylight didn’t feel as heavy as usual.

His pitchfork clanked against Will’s as they both reached for the same clump of hay. Will shot him a grin.

“I didn’t think it would be this easy,” said Will, “All we have to do is clean the stables for a week. In my humble opinion, we got the better end of the deal. Kitchen duty sucks.”

Nico snorted. “Yeah,” he replied, “But Pegasus crap really stinks.”

“True.”

“Will?”

“Yeah?”

“What was the idea you had last night? After I told you about… me?”

“That’s a surprise. Top secret.”

“I hate surprises,” Nico grumbled.

“You’ll love this one.”

“You said that with the last one.”

“Are you saying you didn’t enjoy that wonderful picnic?”

“No,” said Nico slowly, “Just that I like to know what I have to be prepared for.”

“Are you prepared for this?”

And with that, all Nico could see was yellow straw and he was stumbling away, dropping his pitchfork.

“What the fuck Solace?” Nico tried to sound angry, but a laugh permeated his speech as he pulled the hay out of his face.

Will was holding one hand over his face, desperately holding in a laugh.

“Oh you’re going to pay for that,” Nico said, leaning down to grab a handful of hay.

The laugh left Will’s face. “Oh shit.”

Will dashed off to the side, running out of the stall. Nico ran out after him, smirking to himself. Solace didn’t know what he was getting himself into.

Will was running towards the end of the building, over to a pile of hay bales. He disappeared over the top and Nico sprinted over, determined to show Will a lesson. He jumped up on top of the pile, expecting to see Will standing below him, but the space was bare. He looked around. The stable was suspiciously empty.

“Will?” he said quietly.

Silence.

And then suddenly something was behind him and pushing hay down the front of his shirt and Nico wasn’t flinching, but he was pulling Will around, trying to wrestle the hay out of his grasp.

He was laughing.

Will was laughing.

It was a fun time.

They slipped.

A chorus of curses rang out from the pair as they fell down behind the pile of hay bales. The world came to a standstill and Nico was on his back, groaning. He froze.

Will was on top of him.

Will lifted himself up onto his hands and knees, laughing to himself. He noticed Nico’s expression and froze as well.

“You al-”

Nico couldn’t help himself. He started giggling like a small child. Will just looked so ridiculous, his already straw-like hair covered in piles of hay and falling onto Nico’s body.

“You,” gasped Nico between the laughs, “You look like a scarecrow.”

“Pfft,” said Will, breaking into snickers. “You don’t look much better yourself.”

Their laughter slowly died down into a content quiet.

“Hey Will.”

“Hm?”

“I think you’re my best friend.”

After an aching pause, his golden voice replied.

“Same to you, Nico. Same to you.”

Nico hadn’t felt this happy in a long time.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the long break. I quite liked the way this chapter turned out. Thanks again to jazzhandslazuli for reading my work, your reactions always keep me motivated.  
> Thanks for reading guys! I appreciate each and every one of you.
> 
> \- Will


	14. Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged

It had gotten to the point where Nico was just stuck with the thought, ‘Why was he like this?’. As in, why did he have to turn a minuscule moment in his life into a skyscraper of a thought to ponder, analyse, and pick apart?

He’d never thought he’d get to this point, let alone this quickly. Let alone with Will.

He didn’t know what to make of it.

He had a best friend.

A best friend who apparently liked him just as much back.

And it was _Will_.

For once, he wasn’t stuck in self-doubt, buried and crushed under a thousand tons of anxiety, but rather he was just relishing in the fact that he, kind of, had someone.

~

“So if I play the Athena card, it automatically trumps your battalion of Greek soldiers?”

“Why in Hades would that be the case?”

“Because, y’know, Athena, Goddess of War. Why would a battalion fight the very source of their power?”

“Will, that’s really not how it works.”

~

“You know, I think I may have grown.”

“I don’t think so. You’re still tiny as fuck bro.”

“I am _not_ tiny. I’m just… a different height to you.”

“Yeah, you’re short and I’m tall, that’s like our whole thing.”

“It is not! You’re not even that tall.”

“I am so.”

~

“The stars look really pretty tonight.”

“Yeah,” Nico smiled, “They do.”

~

“Why do your steps have to be _so_ big.”

“It’s because I’m tall.”

“Fuck off.”

~

“Will?”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just… I really like being your best friend.”

~

Nico awoke not with a shout, or a gasp, or a jolt in his chest, but like he was slowly prying his eyes apart after death. His body felt so empty that he barely felt his breath moving in and out of his lungs, so heavy it was almost as if he didn’t exist.

The dream- He couldn’t- He didn’t-

Tears.

They fell down his cheeks gently, and he almost relished his sheer ability to _feel_ something.

The dream had been another plagued with feelings of guilt and despair for all of the things he had done, and all of the things he hadn’t stopped. The sheer pain of it all felt like it stripped away his right to person-hood, leaving him with this empty vessel of a body that didn’t know how to _be_.

There were a million words that could describe how he was feeling, but none of them could make their way into his head. He was just.

Empty.

~

He didn’t know how long he laid there, but by the time he managed to drag himself up to a sitting position, orange sunlight was seeping through the gaps in his curtains.

The cavernous hole in his chest hadn’t been filled in the time had been lying there, but he slowly stood, his bones aching like he had aged.

A thought came to him.

This wasn’t fair.

He wasn’t meant to feel like this. So hollow that he barely existed. He was meant to be finally getting better, with light crawling its way into his crevices and gaps.

Nico’s hands went to his hair, pulling hard and groaning at the sensation. He focused on the pain, letting it wash over him and give him _something_ other than the loneliness he suddenly felt.

He stopped.

He stood.

And he walked out the door.

~

It wasn’t like he _didn’t_ know where he was going, but it was more like he wasn’t conscious of the fact that he had made the decision to go there.

Nico stopped outside the battle arena, just beside the small stand that held a variety of daggers, swords and various other weapons designed for bodily harm. His eyes flickered over the weapons and he picked up a small knife.

The metal gleamed in the orange afternoon sun, and Nico could see his reflection shimmering in the dagger. Ice in his veins, he brought the dagger down to his thigh. His fingers trembled, his body calling for him to do it so he could just _feel_ something. He could just –

 _No_.

He threw the dagger to the ground in a fit of rage. He couldn’t. If he could do one thing today, it would be to not do _that_.

Instead he quickly grabbed at a short sword and examined it for a moment before walking almost cautiously towards the training dummy set up in the middle of the ring.

He was still so, so empty, but he needed to let it out, somehow.

His first strike at the dummy was slow, pathetic almost, but this only encouraged him to swing harder the next time, and even harder the next.

~

He had thought things had been getting better.

 _Strike_.

He had thought things were changing.

 _Strike_.

He had thought that maybe, just maybe, he had a right to _be better_.

_Strike._

But no.

_Strike._

He was back

_Strike_

Where

_Strike_

He

_Strike_

Started.

 _Strike_.

The dummy crumbled to pieces from the sheer number of blows it had received and Nico fell to his knees with it, his chest heaving like a bellows. Sweat drenched his hair, falling in drips down his neck.

Still, he felt nothing.

“Nico?”

Nico froze, his breath catching in his throat.

 _Will_.

All thoughts in his brain froze, not prepared for that fact that Will, that guy, Will, that doctor, Will, _his best friend_ was here.

Nico barely registered a body moving beside his, kneeling to the ground.

“Nico, has something happened?”

He still felt so empty he didn’t know if he had the ability to form words. He opened his mouth, breath catching and hesitating.

“I-”

He breathed in.

“I-” He could feel tears prickling almost painfully in his eyes. _Dammit, why was he so fucking weak?_

He bit his lip, then released a heated puff of air. “I thought,” he croaked, “I thought I was getting better… But… I had a dream and…”

His shoulders started shaking and suddenly he wasn’t empty anymore, he was filled with an ache that was starting to overflow and tears broke through his eyes.

“I- I don’t know Will, sometimes. I don’t know if it’s ever going to get better and I feel so lost and wonder what the point is and the fact that I don’t know is just so much worse because I’m such a terrible-”

“Nico, I’m gonna stop you right there, okay?”

Nico was breathing heavily now, stopping speaking like a physical blow had hit him.

“I’m gonna touch you now, is that okay?”

He nodded softly.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, easing into the touch so slightly that he barely registered that it was there.

“Now I’m gonna give you hug, alright?”

Nico nodded a bit quicker this time and he was instantly pulled against Will’s chest and it didn’t suddenly put a stop to all of this pure feeling he had, but it was something. Hands went to his hair.

“You’re alright love, you’re alright.”

Nico just cried.

~

Nico was barely aware of when Will took his hand, slowly guiding him to his feet and leading him away from the arena. He thought that maybe he should have been self-conscious of the fact that Will was holding his hand, leading him through a camp of teenagers who obviously would have been staring, but he couldn’t bother to make the worry penetrate the thick cavern of blankness in his head.

By the time Nico’s head started paying attention again, he was standing inside his bedroom at the Hades Cabin, Will bending his head to look into his eyes.

“How you doing?” Will asked softly.

Nico just looked down and shrugged. He couldn’t even force words out at this point. He had suddenly fallen into a pit of exhaustion.

Will just smiled. “Wanna lie down for a while?”

Nico nodded. That sounded good.

Will lead him over to the bed, scooting over to the far side and patting the spot beside him.

“I’m thinking we just chill out for a while, I don’t have anywhere to be today.”

Nico nodded, and, like his body was somehow not his own, moved and sat down beside Will on the bed. Nico’s bed was barely larger than a single, and so the space between his body and Will’s was painfully small.

A thought suddenly came to him, slowly, the first thought in hours that wasn’t piercing or hurting in any way. He was surprisingly comfortable with it.

He looked over at Will, his golden curls falling onto Nico’s pillow and his tanned body lying so close next to him. Nico realised all he wanted to do was just curl up under Will’s arm, push into his side and fall asleep.

“Did you want to talk about anything?” Will asked, a concerned look in his eyes. Nico shook his head, he didn’t think he had the energy to talk anymore.

“Well why don’t we listen to some music?”

“Sure,” he managed to say.

“Cool,” replied Will, “Let me have a think.”

Will reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and a seat of earbuds. He set it up, reaching over and pushing the bud into Nico’s ear, his skin tingling where Will’s fingers brushed his hair away.

“What first then? How about…”

And they sat there and listened for

“Now this song,” Will said in a grand voice after three or four songs, “This song is a personal favourite. It’s helped me through tough times, rough times and overall the worst times. I would not be alive today if not for this song. It’s truly a piece for our time-”

“Are you done?”

Will gave him a look, “Of course not, Nico-”

Nico gave him a look back.

“Okay, okay,” Will said, pressing a button on the phone.

A buzzing, bopping tune began to play, as fast paced as anything Nico had ever heard. Nico blinked. This was unlike anything Will had played him before. It was too fast, too high-pitched and simultaneously too low. He could barely understand what was being said.*

“What’s it saying – Everytime we touch? Will, what is this?”

“Like I said Nico, the pinnacle of human achievement. Nightcore.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I didn’t think you would.”

Will paused the song, laughing and it was so infectious, it was the first time that Nico even felt like smiling all day. This dork, this goofy, adorable-

Nico stopped laughing and stopped his thoughts. He shouldn’t be thinking that now.

“Alright, here’s something else.”

Nico lay there with Will and listened for a long, long time, sleepiness slowly pervading his thoughts. Will put on one last song and Nico closed his eyes.

~

_Sing to me_

_Sing to me_

_I don’t want to wake up_

_On my own anymore_

~

Nico woke up hours later, the light gone dark, and feeling pleasantly warm. His head was resting on Will’s chest, rising softly and slowly like a comforting breeze. Nico looked up, saw Will’s peaceful face, and went back to sleep.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...  
> Yeah it's been a while. A year in fact. Sorry about that. This year, I've moved out of home and gone to uni and had a lot of changes in my life. Really, I should have had a lot of time to write this year, but I've had a lot of issues with actually having interests, yknow? But, I did manage to come up with this chapter over the past couple of months.  
> Palisades has a special place in my heart, because it was a deeply personal fic. I often experienced many of the things Nico did. But, now I'm not so much in that same frame of my mind, and that's part of my difficulty in finishing this work.  
>  But in saying all that I don't want to let this go. It means too much to me.  
> Finally, I have a plan for Palisades. My goal is to have it finished by the end of next year, and to try and upload once a month. Although sidenote, it only has at most, 7 chapters left, so there could be some gaps in my promise. But I'm gonna try.  
> I wrote this chapter to something of a soundtrack if you're interested.  
> Opening happy parts:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h36uaK-wkc4  
> When Nico wakes up sad:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GArNajQxuAg  
> Sleeping with Will:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwuLm1HPpSY (I've already used this song in the fic so I had to find a suitable replacement)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbuGWgYLqWk  
> Sorry again for leaving so long, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!


End file.
